From the Earth we will Grow
by tvstatic
Summary: Post Episode 4.13. This begins where season 4 ends, and is what I would want out of Season 5 in a perfect world. No twists and turns, just what I am imagining could happen in season 5. Starts on the ground then moves to the bunker. And back. You know, much like the agony of the actual show.
1. Chapter 1

~ Post Episode 4.13 ~

~This is my effort to write a somewhat realistic 5th season… and to provide an outlet for the unknowns of the next season~

Chapter 1

Clarke stood there on full alert, having already taken in all of the risks that might be associated with a foreign ship, landing exactly where she told it to land, and with a label indicating "prisoner transport". She remembered Jackson telling her how Becca had been involved with a mining company that had the nightblood solution tested on it for prisoners. Clarke analyzed the situation quickly into a lost of positives and negatives. Positives being, clearly, the mining technology and the fact the ship had come from space. The overwhelming negative was that these people were hostile. Clarke had to protect Madi at all costs. It wasn't an option. She was fiercly protective and having not seen another human in over 6 years put her, understandably, more on edge. She remembered being in solitary for a year before being put in the drop ship for Earth. Her anxiety was heightened, and she showed it across her face.

Madi had the guns at the ready and fortunately, had no fear. Being alone after praimfaya for so long, and having lost all she knew at the age of six meant that she understood she would have to fight for survive. In Clarke, she had found an ally, a mentor, and a motherly figure – but the loss of her whole world at such a young age made her tough. She knew Clarke, who was desperately hoping to see her family and friends again had the potential to be weak. She saw her desperation many times over their time together: when they first located the bunker and realized the monumental task before them; when she talked about her mother; and of course, every day when she tried to call her friends in the sky. Madi didn't have the type of hope the Clarke did – she had witnesses her entire village perish in praimfaya, and she survived for reasons she didn't understand. Nightblood to her was a curse, not a cure. Madi watched Clarke carefully as the ship appeared to descend and settle onto the charred black earth only a few miles away. She could see that Clarke was so longer feeling sentimental, and that there was a desperate and determined look on her face that stared at the ship that clearly was not what she was expecting. She remembered seeing that face several years ago after praimfaya, when she first met Clarke.

Flashback – 5 Years Ago

 _Madi was hiding in a tree when she heard a crunch in the soot and ash. She immediately looked in direction it had come from, 50 metres away and two stories down. She hadn't seen a person in over a year, and at only seven years old and having been alone for more than a year, she was not going to show her face. But the stillness of the air betrayed her, and as she breathed, the woman looked up._

 _Clarke saw a glint of what she thought was an eye, and movement. She started running towards it with her bow and arrow out, clearly believing she was tracking an animal to eat as opposed to a child. Clarke saw the slight movement again, aimed, and let the arrow fly. Madi closed her eyes._

 _The arrow landed in the charred tree trunk and Madi let out a yelp. Clarke paused with a second arrow loaded – the yelp was decidedly human. Clarke lowered her bow and arrow. "Hello?" "Is there anybody out there?". Madi didn't understand, and was silent. "Heya? Oso throu daun ogeda." Madi stayed silent. Then, she saw the woman pull out some sort of food package and water and offer it to the ground. "Beja, pro." She walked away. Madi waited until she felt safe, ran down, and grabbed the food. Clarke slowly walked into the clearing, and Madi grunted in her direction. "Ogeda."_


	2. Chapter 2

Clarke's mind was in overdrive. She had to consider all the options in such a short period of time as she didn't know how quickly the people aboard the Eligius ship would be disembarking. Considering it had been 103 years since the first nuclear war, she knew these people would bring with them their own ideas, and their own problems just as the 100 and Skaikru had. She gestured to Madi to stay out of sight, and silent. With the rover hidden, she used her rifle viewfinder to keep a close eye on the Eligius ship.

For the first thirty minutes, nothing happened. The ship sat there, with the dust and ash from the landing settling. Clarke wasn't sure she could handle the suspense as her heart pounded in her chest. Finally, the doors opened and four people dressed in head to toe radioactive equipment came out with scanners. It was clear they were checking radiation levels before allowing the rest of the crew or passengers disembark.

They returned to the ship after their scans. Clarke waited. Another hour passed. Suddenly the ship door opened and three people were pushed out the door. They had no radioactive suits and walked awkwardly. Looking through the view finder, Clarke let out the smallest of gasps. She quickly recognized Murphy and two others she didn't recognize. Looking closer, she realized they weren't just walking awkwardly – their legs were all chained together with a thin silver band. They could only walk a metre in any direction without dragging the others. They looked bewildered, ravaged and thin. Clarke suppressed both her desire to cry out to them, and her desire to cry. Her eyes filled with tears and she blinked them away. She was so relieved to see Murphy. It meant it was possible her friends had all survived - but now she had more risks than she had anticipated. It meant that if her friends were still alive, they were likely prisoners and unlike in times past where she had to save her friends… she didn't have a small army or even her friends to help. She had a 12 year old girl, some rusty guns, and a rover.

Madi looked at her, patiently waiting for direction from her hiding spot. Clarke gestured again – Madi knew this meant retreat cautiously until it is safe to plan a response. Clarke took one last look at Murphy – never realizing she would look at him with such love for seeing his face – and disappeared into the cover of the forest.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Murphy did not have the sweet homecoming he was expecting. Here he was, back on the wonderful planet earth it seemed he was always desperate to get to, and once again it felt very quickly like it was more hype than it was worth. This time of course, was worse. The ground where they landed was completely covered in ash. Unsurprisingly, Pike Junior (a nasty nickname Murphy called Commander Sykes) tossed him and the other two prisoners out to die first. "There are only a few radiation suits, and we need to see if this trash heap is worth staying for… so we are going to throw out the garbage for a few hours and see how they do first."

Murphy spat at him. And, of course, Murphy had the price he paid written all over his face from the beating.

Murphy squinted into the horizon. The ground beneath him was charred and reminded him of the desert during his Jaha quest of nightmares, but ahead he saw some greenery. The idiots he was chained to could barely believe their own good luck that they hadn't yet died from radiation poisoning, but Murphy knew and trusted that the praimfaya predictions of five years would be accurate, and it had been six years since they landed. So Murphy stared towards the greenery, wondering if there would be any wild game alive since praimfaya. Algae and recycled urine had made him lose his appetite over the years they spent in the Ring.

There was a sudden tug at his leg – Idiot 1, also known as Trey, had fallen over. Probably tripped on a rock. Murphy pushed his shoulder and yelled – "Get UP!". Trey was weak. Both physically, and in terms of his mental resolve but he could be motivated if he thought there was a beating. He scrambled up and Idiot 2, also known as Alloy, stood firm. He was the silent type which at least Murphy could respect. It had never been clear to Murphy what had gotten Alloy locked up, but you could never really trust the silent types.

Murphy headed off in the direction of the forest, hoping to at least smell and touch some of the greenery. Then, he felt a sudden zap in his leg, and all three of them fell over.

"Not so fast. We wouldn't want you to try and run off again. Just stay near the ship." came through the headcom piece embedded in Murphy's ear.

Murphy heaved himself up and sat, looking away from the ship and towards the green space. Murphy knew if the bunker had survived, they would be out and likely living there. He needed their help to rescue his friends. He needed them to see him. He hadn't sacrificed this much and suffered this long to remain prisoner forever.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Clarke and Madi convened in one of the reefer tunnels that has survived the explosions at Mount Weather and praimfaya. Madi still hated going in them, but had long since resolved to stop remembering the past. The past had disappeared, along with her family and village.

Clarke breathed heavily. Her eyes showed more emotion than Madi had seen in recent months. Madi could sense Clarke's pain and waited for her to speak.

"I know one of them. My friend, Murphy. He was there."

Madi nodded, silently taking this in. She had heard about Murphy. He sounded like a true warrior who survived, no matter what. He had been falsely accused of murder, nearly hung up, tortured, made sick by her people to soften the battlefield… and that was just the first few weeks on the ground. Clarke had tried to explain to her the concept of redemption with these stories. How Murphy had changed, and become his true self instead of trying to be somebody he wasn't. Murphy represented second chances and redemption.

"What do we do?"

Clarke hesitated at the question. What _could_ they do? She looked at Madi, desperation instead of resolve on her face.

Madi understood quickly that sentimentality had no place in plans. She didn't survive on her own after praimfaya on memories. She survived day by day on grit, determination, and cockroaches when she could find them. She had to get Clarke to focus.

"Clarke, we know the ground better than they do. We have an advantage. Remember what you told me about when you first landed and our clans had all this knowledge? We have that now. Let's use it."

Clarke's eyes lifted sharply. Her brain was back.

"Yes. It's critical we get a message to Murphy. Something only he will understand or see. We need him to know he is not alone and once he knows that he might be able to help us out on the inside."

"How do we do it?"

Clarke sat silently for a while, thinking. Madi was relieved to see her ace was filled with the challenge of analysis as opposed to grief. Madi knew Murphy was not her best friend, or even her close friend, but Madi knew better than anybody that any familiar face would have been a distraction. She would have given anything to see her older brother again. Just the thought put a knot in her stomach that she didn't have time for. She pushed it away and refocused as well.

She wondered aloud - "What would be sign for Murphy, something that he would know meant something but that others would not? But something that these strangers would not recognize as a sign."

Clarke admired Madi and her analytical mind. Clarke used to be like her, only focusing on the goal and pushing away her feelings. She gazed at her before quickly coming up with an idea.

"Jobi nuts. We need Jobi nuts. Murphy will recognize them. He may even be able to use them against the Eligius."

"But how do we get them to him?"

Clarke considered this. It would not be easy and she wasn't sure what type of monitoring they had from the ship. "We can go at night. We can leave the jobi nuts where Murphy will be able to reach them and where they were sitting today. Murphy will know what this means and will use them in the most opportune way he can think of… which means we will likely need to act fast tomorrow. Let's sleep for a few hours now and I will leave at nightfall."

Madi knew Clarke would try to protect her, but logically, she was more spry, she was faster, smaller. But there was no use arguing with her so she nodded and they pulled out their sleep sacks in the tunnel and prepared to rest, but neither was able to. The excitement of seeing the first humans in over six years meant that they simply closed their eyes and thought about what they had seen until nightfall. Clarke got their collection of Gobi nuts together and Madi collected additional ones. They went back to the edge of the forest and waited with baited breath for the sky to darken completely.


	5. Chapter 5

Murphy sat there, glaring as the sun set on the distant, charred remains of mountains. Trey and Alloy had long since passed out. The initial stress of thinking they might die, combined with the excitement when they didn't, the elation of being on this planet earth and finally, the mental and physical exhaustion of their captivity meant that when the sun had beaten them down after several hours, they passed out. Murphy could hear them breathing behind him. He looked back, and remembered when they first landed on the Ring and how they had almost suffocated. He felt so helpless then. He felt so helpless now. When the Eligius had first docked at the Ring, they had been naïve. They hadn't realized that these miners who had been put into hypersleep would be from another lifetime, another century when the Earth was lush and green. The Eligius had demanded answers of the 100, answers about their families, their homes… of course, no answer, even the truth, would satisfy them.

Flashback – 2 Years Ago

 _Raven and Monty are working on a piece of equipment. In the distance, Echo and Harper are discussing the Algae situation. Emori and Monty are sitting, staring at the ceiling at nothing. Bellamy comes rushing into the room and speaks in a gruff tone to Raven, but for all to hear._

 _"Did you hear that?"_

 _"Hear what Bellamy?"_

 _"Over the radio."_

 _"No Bellamy. I know you think that static you hear occasionally means something, but as I told you, its likely just frequency blips that occur as a result of the radioactivity on earth. It's not the bunker. It's not Clarke. It's nobody."_

 _"No, this time, I heard somebody."_

 _Bellamy strode over to the internal Ring coms system and punched a few buttons. All of a sudden, a voice filled the room._

 _"This is the Elgius ship – do you read? We are looking to reach Polaris and have not located it on our sensors. We have been unable to reach anybody on Earth."_

 _Everybody in the room stared at the buttons Bellamy touched. This was the first time they had heard another human being in over three years since Praimfaya- and they were looking for Becca. Bellamy reached for the radio, but Raven held his hand back._

 _"No Bellamy – we don't know what this means."_

 _"It means Raven, that we have a way home. That I can see Octavia again. That we don't need to risk dying in a rocket that doesn't have enough oxygen or fuel to make it home."_

 _"Bellamy, I know you want to get home. We all want to get home. But we have to think this through."_

 _The group stared in silence at the pair of them._

 _"Raven, you have tried, and tried, and tried for four years to find a way to get us home. Are you any closer than we were when we landed?"_

 _She looked at her feet, obviously disappointed, frustrated, and angry._

 _"No, I haven't, but that doesn't mean that you have the right to put all of our lives at risk with ALIE again just so that you can maybe see your sister or die trying."_

 _Bellamy looked at her in disbelief. The radio crackled again._

 _"Elgius ship – do you read? We are approximately 500 kilometres away. Please respond."_

 _Then he looked at the group._

 _"Do you honestly want to survive on algae salads and no oxygen for the rest of your lives? Or are you willing to at least take the chance that this could be our salvation."_

 _The group looked at Raven, and looked at Bellamy. Murphy spoke._

 _"I am done with this shithole. It was a shithole to grow up in. It's a shithole to live in. Let's take the chance."_

 _Everybody, except Raven, nodded. Raven walked away and put her hand on her head in frustration._

 _Bellamy picked up the radio._

 _"Ring to the Elgius ship. We are here."_

Murphy remembered it like it was yesterday. It pretty much was, actually. After a few or so of diplomacy, followed by a few weeks of torture, they were all taken captive and made prisoners. Of course, there were different statuses of prisoners on a ship full of prisoner. There were those of the seven that could be useful because of their skills. There were ones who were strong. Then there were the ones who were visibly pregnant. Although women prisoners were on the Eligius ship, it seemed none were able to have children. Apparently that could be a real problem for a prisoner transport ship in hypersleep. An ability to bear children was apparently an extremely attractive quality to this disturbingly hungry-eyed group of mostly male prisoners. And finally, that was why Murphy was put in the last category – when Pike Junior had looked at Emori the wrong way, Murphy grabbed his head and threw it down on a console. He hadn't seen his friends on the ship since and he had been stuck in hypersleep for 18 months.

When they woke him up, they had announced his role as the canary, and tossed him outside with Trey and Alloy. He had no idea what had happened since he last saw his friends, or to Emori. He felt confident they were alive, but as they were more cooperative than he had turned out to be, likely doing slave labour. Murphy had to help them escape but was at a loss about what to do.

Suddenly, in moving his eyes down to the tree line…. He squinted. Did he see something move? He swore, he saw the slightest movement in the distance just as it was getting dark. And he was sure, whoever it was, had the same build as somebody he never thought he would see again.


	6. Chapter 6

Clarke and Madi waited patiently, relieved to see the other two that Murphy was with fall asleep. Clarke has assumed, wrongly, that they would be removed to the ship by nightfall. Instead, they remained outside – Murphy alert, and seemingly staring into the woods where they were. The other two men, slumped over awkwardly, and appeared passed out.

Clarke instructed Madi to go hide. "I can't have you out here. It's dangerous."

Madi knew when not to put up a fight. Still, she said "Clarke, will the Jobi nuts be enough for Murphy? Now that we can talk to him, we could…"

"No. We cannot speak to him. I expect they have coms set up and may hear us, even if they can't see us."

"But he will see you, and say something!"

"I know… I will tell him to be silent. He knows better."

Madi slipped away, heading back to the rover. Clarke wasn't thinking clearly. She wasn't thinking about the best plan, she was too anxious to find out news of her friends. On top of that, she wasn't as fast as her. In a fight, which her and Clarke practiced often, Clarke could still win as she was strong. But in a race, Madi could win, everytime. Madi considered the options. She knew Clarke wouldn't approve…. But she had an idea. An idea that had come to her from one of the many stories Clarke had told her about Murphy.

Madi ran to the rover, and grabbed a vial from their kit, and a rag. She then double backed, and only when it was too late did Clarke see her running under the cover of darkness for the prisoners.

Clarke gasped, her anxiety evident. She loves Madi, but she is too stubborn, and it is too late – she can only watch. She looked at the Jobi nuts still sitting next to her. What on earth could Madi be doing and what was the point if she didn't have the Jobi nuts?


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Madi darted in the shadows, well aware that Clarke was staring at her and she would need to deal with a lecture later about risks. She didn't care. She knew Clarke would not like this idea, but she knew how effective it would be.

She was so quiet, and the snores of the sleeping men so loud, that it wasn't until she was only a few feet from Murphy that he noticed her. He jumped, visibly, and shifted – but she put a firm finger to her lips for silence. It helped, Madi thought, that he had never seen her before.

She showed him the vial and the rag. She silently put the contents of the vial on the rag, and put the rag just above Alloys mouth. He breathed it in easily. She turned to Trey, and did the same. All silently.

Murphy was so confused. Who was this young girl, and why had they sent her, instead of the other grounders? Why only her? Where were the grounders that would cut your neck open and spill your guts, rip your fingernails off, or….

Murphy remembered something. A faint memory, in a haze of terrible ones, shortly before his cage had been left open and he made his way back to the dropship. A similar vial. A rag. He audibly gasped and stared at Madi with wide eyes. She looked at him with the recognition of an ally. A knowing ally. Then he noticed her holding something up for him to see – a watch. A watch he recognizes belongs to a person matching the build he had seen in the woods. Clarke Griffin. He looks at her, stunned – and Madi grins, leaves the rag in his lap, and runs back to the woods.

Murphy grinned back, silently into the night. He puts the rag into his pocket – that may help him out later. just in case it doesn't spread as it should. Clarke Griffin. Of course. The nightblood had worked and she had survived. Now who was the cockroach.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

When daylight came, Murphy felt a zap go up through his leg that also woke Alloy and Trey.

"Rise and shine, dickheads. Hope you enjoyed your wake up call! Now to bring you in to check and see if its safe the rest of us."

The ship opened, and Alloy and Trey, already looking worse for wear, stumbled in. Murphy easily made himself look vaguely ill as well, although he knew he would already be immune.

Pike Junior strode into the room, cocky as ever.

"Well, looks like the good news is that its safe for us. The bad news, of course, is that you are still alive."

Murphy's eyes felt like they would explode he was so angry.

"Where is Emori?"

"Sorry, Murphy, but you don't get to demand answers around here. Trust me, Emori is… well, she is being _well_ taken care of."

Unsurprisingly, and certainly within Murphy's character, Murphy lunged forward. This time, however, he had the rag. He grabbed Sykes collar and pulled him in, punching him with the rag in the jaw. It was a soft hit as he was held back being chained to Alloy and Trey, but that's all he needed.

Sykes smiled.

"Well, Murphy, you won't be surprised to learn that you'll have 25 electric lashes waiting for you. But, its good to see you are in such good spirits."

Sykes cronies all chuckled. But they were excited to see Earth to see what was left of their home planet, and breath fresh air, and they weren't following protocols and didn't have any of the proper face gear on. Murphy knew this was his chance.

"The bad news is that I didn't have these chains off to make this a fair fight. Too bad you and your men are too chicken shit to take a fight like a man."

Sykes growled.

Murphy knew he had to do better. "It's too bad all of you losers don't have any families or lives to go back to. Although, I am surprised that any of you had anybody who cared about you in the first place."

Any mention of their families always got a rise out of these guys. Sure enough, they grabbed him and started punching him. Murphy kept the rag and his hands over his face, where they punched him again and again until Sykes made a small cough.

"Don't waste your time. Let's get them checked out by the nurse and we can get moving."

Murphy had never seen a nurse in all his time here. After the guards walked away, he saw them motion somebody to get going. In walked Harper, or what was left of her. Her hair had been shaved off and she was clearly exhausted.

She rushed up to Murphy with some basic medical equipment to measure radiation. "What did you see?" she begged.

Murphy had a million questions. It had been 18 months since he had seen her.

"How is Emori?"

"She is fine, Murphy. The baby…."

"What? What?"

"I am sorry Murphy. The baby didn't make it. I delivered her myself, and she was too small."

Murphy crumpled. He had expected as much, considering all the torture that they had gone through, but the grief was still so fresh for him. He suddenly looked at Harper and wistfully said…. "a girl?".

"Yes, Murphy. I am so sorry." Harper wrapped her arms around him as he made sharp ragged breaths and he tried to wipe away his tears.

Murphy looked up at her, and looked down at her stomach. "What about…?"

Harper, knowing how hard this would be, made a curt nod. "She made it. Her name is Hannah. After Monty's mother. I was almost to full term and they kept the torture to emotional, instead of physical…. She trailed off. "What they did to Monty…. I… and making me watch…. well, he is still hurting."

Murphy's grief and anxiety for Emori was so great. He could barely think, let along congratulate Harper and Monty. Once again, life kept throwing him shitty curveballs.

All of a sudden, despite desperately needed catch up, Alloy puked up blood.

"What the…?" Harper said.

Murphy glanced over, realizing there was work to be done in order for them to survive and to be reunited with Emory.

"Shit. Harper. A grounder girl came up to me, with this rag, just like what they did when the grounder played biological warfare on us at the dropship. She put it over their mouths. We should be immune as we already had it."

Harper's eyes lit up. "Give me the rag. I can spread the virus more quickly. Do you think it's the bunker who is going to help us?"

Murphy shook his head. "No…. Harper, she was 12. It doesn't look anybody is alive out there, it was so quiet. But…" he trailed off.

"What?"

"Well… the little girl. She showed me Clarke's watch. And I thought I saw a shadow of somebody who looked, possibly like Clarke…. In the woods."

"Murphy, that's not possible. I mean…"

"It is possible. She had nightblood. She could have made it back to the bunker. This little girl, its like she knew me, she knew the story, she gave me this look like I would know exactly what she was doing."

"No. We can't hope for that. It's just too far fetched. You can't tell Bellamy that. It would… well it would not end well if she wasn't alive."

"We are wasting time here. Tell them that we have the all clear and that Alloy and Trey are suffering from gravity sickness but it has already started to pass. Then spread this disease everywhere. Finally that virus is going to help us."

Harper nodded, put the equipment away, and glanced back.

"What do we do after we've spread the disease?"

"We've got Bellamy to figure that out. Just tell Emori that I love her and will see her soon."

With one final nod, Harper turned, and rushed from the room.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Harper had little time to go back to her quarters and alert Monty to the plan. She knew that it wouldn't be long before she had to be a "nurse" a task that seemed to be assigned to her because she had occasionally helped Clarke and had learned a few things while stuck in the Ring for years. Fortunately, there was no shortage of electronic textbook. It was good to appear useful to the crew, as it meant she was given a lot more freedom. The others, were not so lucky.

She entered their "family quarters" – barely larger than her cell on the Ark but enough space for two beds instead of one single. Monty was there with Hannah, talking to her quietly. When Harper gave him the look, he stood up and they stood at the door as she updated him on the situation.

"What are we supposed to do Harper? Hannah is just a baby!"

"We have to make a run for it Monty."

"It's not safe."

"We are not safe here either. We are alive, sure, but I am only given special treatment for now. You know what they are going to do to us eventually."

"I know. We need to help our friends get out. How are we going to do it?"

"Emori and Echo should be able to steal guard key cards once enough of them are sick. Once we have those, Raven can crack into the system and remove the shockers so we can get away."

"Then what? Did Murphy see anybody from the bunkers other than this young girl?"

"No. I am starting to worry about the bunkers. He said it seemed this girl was pretty much alone… other than…"

"Other than what?"

"He thinks he …. He thinks he saw Clarke."

"WHAT?"

Hannah looked up at him. "Daddy?"

"Keep playing sweetie. We are going to go on an adventure in a bit."

Monty looked back at Harper. "You can't be serious."

Harper shrugged her shoulders. "He was. He said the grounder girl showed him Clarke's watch."

Monty nodded in stunned surprise. "Still… she could have gotten that from anywhere. The earth was burning for over a year."

Harper walked over, picked Hannah up, and gave her a kiss, and then gave her to Monty and gave him a kiss.

"Be ready and packed in an hour. As soon as Raven has removed the shocks, we will run."

Monty nodded, looking around. There wasn't much to pack.

"I love you Harper."

She smiled serenely, appreciating this brief moment with her family with actual hope before them. "I love you too."

And with that, she was gone.


	10. Chapter 10

It didn't take long for the disease to spread, maybe even less time than it did with the 100. The 250 men and women on board had not left the ship in years and although they had not aged due to their hypersleep, they were weakened by it. It wasn't long until blood starting coming out of everybody's eyes. Unlike with the 100, it didn't seem like anybody was immune and people stated dropping like flies.

Emori knew what was happening, as did Echo, immediately. They looked at each other and nodded. ON the premise of helping in the medical bay, they were dragging people in and leaving them to be "cared for" by am overwhelmed Harper who could barely give people water. Sykes was unfortunately smart enough to prop himself up on his side so he would drown in his own vomit. Emori looked disappointed. But while dragging in another, she saw he was a guard and that he had the guards key card. She grabbed it easily and smoothly while leaning him up against the wall. She spotted another guard across the room, and ran over to move him onto his side, lecturing him not to drown in his own vomit. She smoothly took his card as well. Heading back to the entrance with Echo, she announced she would be "going to help the others on Deck 2" and handed Echo a card. In the chaos, nobody heard her. Echo nodded in her direction and announced she would go to Deck 4. Again, nobody cared. There was a stack of 12 dead bodies already in the corner, and that was causing massive panic among the sick.

They left with their respective, unspoken tasks. To release the prisoners, and escape.


	11. Chapter 11

Raven was sitting in front of yet another piece of shitty last century equipment trying to make it work, when the door to the shop swung open and revealed Echo.

"Are you sick?" she demanded?

"What? No. Whats going on?"

Echo curtly handed her the guards card. "Get us out of here."

Raven could barely believe it. These cards were impossible to get.

"Whats going on here?"

Echo glared at her. "We don't have time for that. Give me something I can use as a weapon if we need it. I will stand guard. Let's get to the control room."

Grounder Echo was back. She had a purpose, somebody to protect, a mission.

Raven tossed her a re-worked piece of metal she had beaten down to resemble a knife. Raven limped down the hall and couldn't believe all the sick people she saw, bleeding from their eyes… and she made the connection.

"Grounders. Biological warfare.

Echo hurriedly looked down the next corridor.

"Looks that way. Let's get our of here and find our people."

Echo barged into the control room and found three men on the ground. One was still alive. The other two were dead from the virus. She tossed the living one into the hallway.

Raven was already bent over the computers, working out the system to break them free. If she remembered, the virus only had a hold for a few hours before people would start recovering. She had to get them out of here.


	12. Chapter 12

Although chaos was erupting on the ship, from the outside, it stood stoic and silent against the ash. Clarke had already reprimanded Madi, but had begrudgingly acknowledged the brilliance of her plan. It may not last forever, but it would soften the so called "battlefield" and its very possible that Murphy, and any of her friends still alive, would escape. But she was impatient and wanted to know everything. She had missed Skaikru. Even when they weren't at Arkadia, when she was with them she felt like she was home. She yearned for home. Then she turned and saw Madi, sitting silently.

"Madi…. Thank you."

Madi nodded, strong and serene. "I knew you had to see your friends. I had to use methods you wouldn't be proud of. Sort of like your mom with the nightblood solution."

Clarke winced. That was not her best moment and remembers Raven's cutting words all these years later. But she didn't care as much as she should about these people. They were clearly holding her friends, or at least Murphy, prisoner. She could save who she could today. That's the best she could do.

She started formulating an escape plan. The reefer tunnels were easily the best option – well hidden to the untrained eye and deep and cavernous, she would lead anybody immediately in that direction. They had enough food to last a few days and they had stocked other supplies there as well. Clarke hadn't really considered what she would do when her friends arrived in terms of practical preparations. She had thought endlessly about an emotional reunion with anybody she knew, on the Ring or in the bunker, but she was kicking herself for being so naïve as to not plan for this type of scenario.

They kept a close eye on the ship, not wanting to miss anything, but stared at nothing. Clarke started to wonder if the plan would even work.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Inside the Eligius, it was a horrible scene. Dead bodies littered the corridors, and people were moaning everywhere.

Harper was covered in blood and puke, and couldn't do anything to help these desperate people other than keep them on their sides. These people weren't all bad, either – there were some who had taken such a kind interest in Hannah. The only sign of normalcy in a horrible situation sometimes is a child. Hannah represented hope not only to her and Monty, but to the Eligius crew, which is why they had been given special treatment.

She looked at Sykes. He may have been horrible to them, but she couldn't help but feel grateful that they had gotten them down here, even if the methods had been brutal.

She walked over to him. He coughed up more blood. Harper turned him on his side.

He was delirious. "The girl." He said.

"What girl?" said Harper, over the moans of the others.

"The girl! Who has been calling for Bellamy. It's her. She has done this to us. She mentioned this biological warfare when she called for Bellamy. She called him. Every day. Begging that he be alive. Telling him how she missed him. Counting the days until he returned. She would do anything for him. She loves him."

Harper looked puzzled and surprised as she had not heard that there had been any radio contact with the bunker. "Octavia?"

Sykes looked at her with his eyes unable to focus, rolling around in his head. Then, he focused momentarily and spat out – "Clarke. And when I survive this plague she brought on us, I will find her, and I will kill her."

Harper's eyes widened. She nodded. Sykes lost consciousness. Harper took a deep breath. She let the cords of the cot he was on loosen a bit, just enough to sink his body surface below the metal rails. She turned him over on his back, staring up at the grey ceiling. That's when he started to choke and Harper walked away to check on another patient. When she returned, his pulse was gone, and he was dead.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Raven was in a cold sweat. She was struggling to understand how to disable the shocks attached to their ankles. Echo was growing impatient, and growling from the front of the corridor. Raven made one final key stroke, and felt a sharp pain in her good leg. The shocks, much like the 100 wristbands, had shorted out and caused a minor shock to them all. She reached down and removed it easily.

Echo did the same.

"Let's go. Grab what you need. We are never coming back here."

Raven took one look around the room, grabbed her toolkit in one hand and her tattered red jacket in the other, and rushed out following Echo down the hall.

Echo used the guards key to open Bellamy's quarters. It stank of sweat and regret. "Bellamy. We have to get going. Raven disabled the shocks."

He barely moved. He was barely a human after what had happened with the Eligius. He had wanted to work with these people and they had all ended up prisoners. He had primised himself that Clarke's death would not be in vain, but what was the point of surviving if they would be prisoners. He kept saying he was a monster, he was selfish… he had gone into a spiral of self hate and loathing and nobody had been able to relieve his pain. It was only Hannah who had any ability to get the light back in his eyes, until his grief over missing Octavia would settle in.

Echo, fortunately, didn't have any time for this crap.

"Get up." She was practically grinding her teeth. "Get up, or I will get you up."

Bellamy slowly moved his legs. They hit the ground. He winced in pain, the torture fresh in his mind and the scar tissue still on his feet. Echo grabbed his arm and marched him down the hallway. It was only when he saw the dead bodies in the corridors that he seemed to wake up.

"What have we done?" he demanded.

"What we had to do." Echo replied.

Bellamy recognized the symptoms. "Grounders are out there? Octavia?"

Raven shrugged. "We don't have all the information yet Bell. Let's escape first, see who is our there helping us second."

They rounded the corner and ran into Harper, Monty and Hannah. Harper had changed into her other shirt but her hands were still blood stained.

"Let's head to meet Emori. She is releasing Murphy and we will escape the way he came in."

They rushed down as quickly as possible, skipping over dead bodies. Hannah looked confused and looking over Monty's shoulder to Bellamy, asked "Are they sick? Why aren't we helping them?"

Bellamy shook his head and Monty shushed her. They ran down the stairs, and straight into one of Sykes cronies.

He stared them down with his electric shock batons and charged.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Echo sprung into action. She hadn't been able to fight back when she was tortured. This time, she could. She slashed his throat swiftly with the knife from Raven. Blood poured. Hannah screamed.

"We don't have time for this." Echo announced and pushed them forward onto Level 2. They swiftly walked into the prisoners area where Emori, Murphy, Allow and Trey were waiting.

"What are they doing here?" demanded Bellamy.

"Hey, I figured they deserve a chance to live and we could use them. They will recover quickly enough from the disease as the worst seems to have passed for them both."

Bellamy glared at them. Echo nodded in approval. Raven re-programed the door, and released the hatch.

They ran.

They were about 100 metres out of the ship when Monty stumbled with Hannah. His hands had never been the same since the radiation burns. Bellamy grabbed Hannah and pulled Monty up, dragging him with them. They still had a while to run before they made it to the woods. They heard an electric burst behind them. They were being shot at. They didn't have guns on the Eligius – they couldn't trust prisoners with guns – but the blasting mining equipment did the trick as well. They ground behind them exploded, and they ran faster. Trey, who was already weak, tripped – and was blasted into oblivion as he was a few feet off from the group.

Echo was half carrying Raven and Murphy grabbed her on the other side so they ran with her between them, her legs effectively useless. The blasting continued but the equipment was not as accurate as they expected. They reached the woods, and ran in under the cover of the trees several hundred metres, zig zagging to lose any chance of being shot at. They were exhausted, out of breath, and collapsed. Bellamy still held Hannah and stared back at the ship.

He raggedly breathed – "Why… why were they so inaccurate at shooting? They were so accurate before."

Raven smiled weakly. "They asked me to test their systems a few months ago…. I decided to program a sub program that would confuse the auto-accuracy program. You know… just in case."

Bellamy collapsed against a tree with a confused Hannah on hip. "Thanks for saving our asses once again Reyes."

Raven sighed, breathed in the air, and tilted her head back, exhausted and exhilarated.

They were home.


	16. Chapter 16

[Note: happy birthday to lupuslady - I decided to finish this chapter today for you!]

[Note 2: Thanks to everybody for the motivating reviews, much appreciated]

Clarke and Madi couldn't miss them running for the woods, but when the shooting started, they had to make their own exit to safety. Clarke hadn't realized the Eligius had been equipped with mining equipment that could be used as a gun. She wouldn't let Madi and her become accidental casualties. They had scattered deep into the forest.

Finally, the shooting stopped. Clarke looked agitated. Madi knew without asking that she had seen more than she bargained for.

It hadn't escaped Clarke's notice that there were ten people, not seven escaping from the ship in that moment before the shooting started. She had seen them briefly through the viewfinder. One she didn't recognize was clearly dead from a mining blast. But most importantly, she was sure she saw Bellamy. Bellamy, her friend, with whom she had shared so much of the past five years but who had never returned with a response... was carrying a little girl with him.

She was too relieved to care what this would mean. She was so relieved, so happy, that they might have all survived. She couldn't wait to see them all and welcome them with open arms. Even Echo, she thought about with a fondness and caring that only six years of separation could give her. She smiled to herself, thinking about how she would have kissed Murphy if given the chance earlier today. Madi had made the right call. Her friends were her weakness.

They crept through the woods trying to find the missing group. Suddenly, they heard noises in the otherwise quiet forest. Clarke and Madi hesitated, out of sight. Clarke waited with baited breath but she didn't know why. Maybe the six years of separation meant more to them than it did to her.

Murphy sat up, coughing. "Bellamy, there is something you need to know about who I think might be out here…"

Bellamy turned to him, hopeful – "Octavia right? That's who helped us escape?"

Murphy shook his head, looking at the ground, uncertain.

Harper jumped in. "No, apparently… well on top of what Murphy told me, there was something Sykes told me in the medical bay before … before he died…. That somebody had been on the radio, trying to talk to Bellamy."

Bellamy again, looked confused. "Did something happen to Octavia? Was it Kane?"

Harper stood up, and went to pick up Hannah from Bellamy's arms where she had nestled herself. Everybody else just sat there, breathing heavily, in disbelief that they were back on the ground breathing real air.

"No…. Bellamy... Sykes said it was ... he said her name was Clarke."

Bellamy didn't react at first. His mouth was agape, showing little to no emotion. Then confusion. Then…

"What do you mean, Clarke? You mean Clarke has been alive, trying to contact us?" He began pulling at his hair, threading his fingers through it, agitated much like he had been so many days on the Ring when he wondered if he had made the right choice, leaving her behind. Echo's eyes stared at him, watching his reaction. Raven stared agape at Harper, replaying everything in her mind when she suddenly spoke.

"That's why they came. That's why they suddenly showed up two years ago. Clarke had been making god damned contact without knowing it to the Eligius ship. They knew it would probably be safe because she was on earth." Raven's mind was racing a mile a minute. How could Clarke have survived down here, alone? She shook her head, just slightly, trying to understand. Monty interrupted her thoughts. "But has anybody actually seen her? Right now all we have is a dead and nearly delirious Sykes who might not have had his head on straight. He knows about Clarke from when we were tortured. It could have been his final revenge or just his own stupidity and maybe it was Octavia trying to contact us, not Clarke." Monty stole a slight glace at Bellamy who was still pulling at his slightly too long, curly hair. Everybody began arguing at once, except Bellamy and of course Hannah who sat with Harper, staring at a tree branch just above her head.

It was too much for Madi and Clarke, waiting quietly in the bushes. Clarke's breathing had almost come to a stop, and Madi knew they were just putting off the inevitable.

Madi looked at Clarke, with a look that said 'please get it over with'. To her it was like watching an animal slowly die instead of putting it out of its misery. Clarke nodded, almost imperceptibly.

They slowly and quietly walked into the clearing behind Bellamy but facing Emori and Monty, who were in the midst of debating as to what "the girl with the watch could have really been trying to say" when they looked up. Emori's mouth was open in shock. Murphy, vindicated, gave his trademark smirk and said, "Your highness?"

Everybody turned to look in the direction he was facing except Bellamy, who stood perfectly still with his hands still in his hair.

Clarke stood there, taking in her friends for the first time in over six years. A lifetime ago.

She struggled to find the words. "You... you all made it. You survived."

Bellamy turned around, looked slowly up at the figure behind him, before landing on Clarke's eyes looking directly into his… and then everything went black.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 16

 _Flashback – 5 years ago_

 _Bellamy was sitting on the cold metal floor, looking out at the earth dimly burning. He was reflecting on the first moment he knew Clarke meant more to him than he would have liked – when Monty walked in._

 _"You still thinking about what you can't change?"_

 _Monty always had a way of getting directly to point in a kind way._

 _"I was thinking about the time Murphy strung me up so I could save Jasper… and how I hadn't been willing to go looking for you, Clarke and Finn until that moment."_

 _"Jaspar told me you changed your mind after that though."_

 _"I know. It's just…. I remember thinking…I was obviously scared that I was going to die, and I was worried about Octavia…. But also that I wanted to see Clarke again… I knew she was more important to me than I had realized before that moment."_

 _Monty sighed._

 _"I remember talked to Jaspar about it. How you suddenly changed your mind – you were willing to go after us…. You said you would go after Clarke, Finn, and Monty even though clearly you wouldn't have cared before. You said… 'we don't abandon our own'."_

 _Bellamy turned his eyes away from Monty and to the ground._

 _"And, you are feeling the same way now, that you aren't happy how you left things?"_

 _"It's just… Clarke and I…. we had been through so much. For her to die down there…"_

 _"Bellamy, stop. Just stop. Clarke, if she was dead, wouldn't want you to dwell like you have over the past few months. She might not even be dead. She was a nightblood, remember? This is Clarke. She has always, always, been able to look after herself. She is worse than Murphy – she doesn't know how to die"_

 _"Monty… look. Look at the earth. There is nothing left."_

 _Monty sighed. He knew it did nobody any favours to dwell on the sea of burning out embers that was once the earth. He stood up, stiffly, and put his hand on Bellamy's sunken shoulder._

 _"Remember when you didn't want to come after us…. You thought that the grounders would have killed us by then, that I was dead. You thought all hope seemed lost, right? That there was no way we would have survived."_

 _Bellamy looked up at Monty with moist eyes._

 _"You didn't abandon us Bellamy. We don't abandon our own. We don't abandon Clarke until we have gotten down there and checked that bunker for ourselves."_

 _Bellamy sighed and looked down at his feet, avoiding eye contact with Monty._

 _"But you can't keep living like this Bellamy. Clarke wouldn't want you to live like this in guilt and remorse. Clarke would want you to focus on what's ahead of us – it's a long five years to survive in space, and we can't lose sight of that. Even when we don't know if anybody survived. She wouldn't want that."_

 _"Monty…. What am I supposed to do in space for the next four years? I am useless up here. I can't be useful in engineering, I can't help with the algae blooms, I can't do anything. You don't need me. I should have stayed down there."_

 _Murphy looked behind him to the slight hum of equipment, and in front of him, to the immense isolation of space._

 _"We need you Bellamy. We need you to help us remember who we are, why we did what we did, why we sacrificed what we have just to survive. We all did things we aren't proud of on the ground, but you always inspired us to continue on. Even when we thought we might die, or were convinced somebody else had… you showed us the way. And you need to lead us home Bellamy. No matter what."_

 _Bellamy breathed in, a heavy internal sigh. Monty turned to leave, and looked behind him and own at Bellamy on the cold floor one more time._

 _"And Bellamy? …. I still have hope."_

 _With that, he turned away, and left the room leaving Bellamy to his thoughts._

 _Flashback 2_

 _Bellamy huddled over the radio. Once a day, for a few minutes, he would hear static. He was convinced the bunker, or maybe somebody else… he refused to think of who…. was attempting contact. Everybody had dismissed him as having gone off the deep end with grief. Raven told him that the radioation would wreak havoc with the signals. But Bellamy wondered… if this was just radioactive levels, why did it do it for only a few minutes at a time, every day? Why were there pauses, like somebody was giving the other side a chance to respond? And why, of all things did he feel emotionally connected to this inanimate object? It tugged at his heart, it pulled him home. He assumed it was his sister trying to reach him, but every now and then, when nobody was around and he was sure nobody could hear him, he would respond into the useless transmitter – "We're still breathing, aren't we?"_

 _Flashback 3_

 _Everybody on the Ring had grown close. They knew every single thing about the others daily routine, mood swings, and habits, but simultaneously knowing nothing about the inner turmoil usually hidden deep within them. Raven recognized the pained look on Bellamy's face, the same way she had felt when she had lost Finn. She was able to wear her grief publicly. Bellamy couldn't – although universally acknowledged by everybody but himself, the emotional connection he had to Clarke was never acknowledged between him and her, and so his grief was kept private. As private as possible._

 _Murphy of course, was able to get a rise out of him every now and then, but usually Bellamy's role was as the peacemaker in the group. The tensions could get high. On any given day, Emori could lash out at Echo for what seemed like ancient grounder grievances; Monty would lash out at Raven for brushing him aside for the most basic tasks when she felt his mutilated hands couldn't finish the job quick enough; Harper would lash out at Murphy for how he treated everybody in the first few days of landing on earth. It didn't matter how small, the smallest infraction could drive somebody wild with anger. That's what happens in close quarters. The oldest hidden resentments could surface in powerful ways, and peace was hard to find._

 _They found ways of coping, of course. A makeshift gym worked wonders for Echo and Harper who were used to putting their bodies to work, and for Bellamy who wanted to work through his anger. Even Raven, working with Harper on physiotherapy principles learned by Harper in the elibrary, found that her leg was slowly improving in terms of flexibility, if not strength or speed. There was sex much like on their first days on the ground but this time, it was not borne out of love, but of convenience and an ability to release tension. After Echo and Raven had cycled through an emotionless Bellamy, they had hooked up with each other. Without any love between them though, it all felt a bit stale, and boring by the third year. They were still basically running on fumes as it was – algae all day every day took even the most basic animal instincts away as they were more worried about survival and putting an end to what feels like a prison sentence. Not only that, but the algae farms had threatened to quit on them twice, and Bellamy ordered everybody to minimize physical activity to conserve oxygen and calories._

 _Raven, always the logical thinker, saw the other bonus in the situation – it meant that it was less likely people would accidentally get pregnant. She knew from her time on the Ark, and her mother who was always concerned about it, that implants to prevent births were only good for about five years, and nobody had been given a new once since the 100 landed all those years ago. Once Raven reminded Bellamy of this, she was pretty sure he took an oath of celibacy. It wasn't worth it. Nothing could threaten their survival._

 _She worried about Bellamy, but then realized the solace in his situation. She didn't know what he did in the coms room with the radio – she hoped to never find out – but she knew it was the only cathartic release he had on this ship in the later years. His motto was "First we survive; then we can find our humanity again." He didn't mean from violence – he meant the life they should have been living on the ground for all those years they were stuck in space._

 _Flashback 4_

 _Harper was sick. It didn't make sense, they hadn't been sick up here in years. Everybody had caught every cold and fought it off in quarantine and it seemed not even the viruses wanted to live stuck in space. Monty was concerned. She was barely able to move she was so nauseated. He called for Emori, Echo, and Raven._

 _Echo took one look at her and spat on the floor, walking away._

 _Emori took in a long, ragged breath._

 _"What?" demanded Raven._

 _Emori looked at Echo's dark shadow in the back of the room, glowering over what she considered a less than ideal situation. After all Raven had warned them about. After all of Bellamy's efforts to avoid burning calories and to conserve oxygen. She looked sorrowfully at Harper, dry heaving over the side of the bed._

 _Finally, she looked up at Monty and Raven, and said – "She is with child."_

 _Raven let out a low pitched, disgruntled scream. "No. NO. What the fuck are we going to do?"_

 _Monty was in obvious shock._

 _Raven was already re-evaluating the algae supply, the likelihood of survival with a baby, the lack of doctor, when Bellamy walked in. Monty was stroking Harper's hair, oblivious to the situation._

 _"She's pregnant!" Raven said, exasperated._

 _Bellamy looked at Harper, and Monty, and finally Emori and Raven. Raven looked at him expectantly, motioning her hand towards Harper, appalled. But Bellamy's face softened, and his eyes met Monty's. It was the most content anybody had seen him in years. He turned to Raven._

 _"We only have to make it a few more months here. We can do it. We don't need to be how they were on the Ark. We can conserve our energy and find a way home, so that this baby doesn't have to live a life like Octavia's."_

 _Ignoring Raven and Echo's growls, he walked over and put his hands on Monty and Harper's backs and whispered – "Congratulations."_


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Bellamy was sure he was dreaming, like he had dreamed many times of being back on Earth. He was surprised, however, to be dreaming that he was in Lincoln's hideout. He worried that this dream would become a nightmare of Lincoln's death and Octavia's grief – something he usually only had to deal with in the waking world. His nightmares of earth were usually more focused on leaving Clarke behind and behind haunted by not just her, but the thousands of people who had died as a direct result of his decisions.

Suddenly, he saw a young girl – a grounder – peering over his face quizzically. _This doesn't make sense_ he thought. _I've never seen her before_. This wasn't one of his usual nightmares.

"You're awake!" the young girl announced loudly. This wasn't really a nightmare, but it wasn't really a dream either. He rubbed his head. He felt very awake.

Then he remembered. He remembered everything that happened over the past seven years and most importantly, he remembered what had surely happened in only the last day. He swung his legs out, and they hit the dirt floor and he stood up swiftly. The young girl stepped back cautiously. "Clarke-?" he croaked.

The young girl motioned towards the exit of the hideout. Bellamy scrambled out and into the greenery. He shielded his eyes, trying to readjust to the light and the greenery and the fresh air. He didn't know how long he had been out, but he didn't think it had been very long.

There was a noise to his left, and he looked in its direction at the other end of the clearing, there was Clarke, staring at him. He ran to her, to close the space between them. She threw her arms around his neck, and he held her tight, his arms wrapped around her shoulders. He buried his face in her hair. She breathed out, onto his chest. Bellamy leaned back slightly, to take in her face. He put his hands on her face, holding it, making sure it was real, while she kept her arms wrapped tight around him. He spoke.

"Clarke, I –"

"I know, Bellamy."

"The nightblood – "

"Yes, it worked."

"I – I should never have left you."

"Yes, you should have. You had to. You saved everybody. You did it Bellamy. We survived. Because of you. Because you knew you had to leave me behind."

Bellamy choked back his emotions, his throat felt like it was closing up it was so thick that breathing was difficult.

"I shouldn't have done it though… I left you behind…"

Clarke looked at him, pulling his forehead to hers briefly, then pulled them apart and looked in his eyes and said "who we are, and who we needed to be to survive are two very different things."

Clarke pulled her head up and looked into his eyes. They heard a cough to their left. Without leaving each other's embrace, they turned to see the young grounder girl looking at Clarke.

"Well?" Madi demanded.

Clarke broke away from Bellamy's grasp but he stayed close. She swept Madi up in a full embrace, lifting her feet off the ground, and smiling broadly and happily, and spun her around. Madi grinned. This was the happiest she had ever seen her in all their time together, and the feeling was contagious. Even though Madi had lost her own family, she understood how happy Clarke was to have hers back.

Then, there was noise beyond the trees, and a little girl came stumbling out, reaching for Bellamy. He picked her up happily and threw her up in the air until she squealed with glee. Clarke looked away, feeling and looking about as awkward as she had felt when Finn and Raven reunited. She had seen him running with the little girl, and how close they were, but when he has collapsed she reacted instinctively, and they had rushed him into the rover and she had given directions to the others to follow their trail. She hadn't had a chance to think about the little girl since that moment. She hadn't cared. She swallowed hard and said, "She's adorable Bellamy."

Bellamy looked at her, happy and relieved but slightly puzzled. Monty and Harper then appeared, and Hannah squealed with excitement. Monty dropped to his knee to pick up his little girl, oblivious to the misunderstanding. He gave her a big kiss on the cheek, lifted her up and turned to introduce her to Clarke, saying "We named her Hannah. After my mother."

Clarke realized her misunderstanding immediately, and her eyes softened again. She walked up to hug Harper and Monty.

"She's beautiful you two. Congratulations."

Madi, watching the scene stated simply – "I thought she belonged to Bellamy."

Monty smiled and said "She belongs to all of us. We are all family even though Harper and I are her parents."

Madi looked up at Clarke thoughtfully, who was looking at Bellamy again.

"I understand."


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The group sat around their slow burning fire that night, not wanting to draw any attention to the Eligius ship but wanting to stay warm, they had waited until night had fallen to build a small fire for warmth. The group crowded around it, even Alloy, who was staring into the fire, mesmerized by its embers. He sat next to Raven who rolled her eyes at his quiet enthusiasm.

Clarke and Madi were sitting next to each other, with Madi holding Hannah. It was the first baby she could remember seeing and she was amazed at how small and perfect she was. Monty and Hannah sat on the other side of her, followed by Emori and Murphy, Echo, Raven, and Alloy. Bellamy sat next to Clarke, close enough to feel her elbow against hers, with his brown eyes staring into the fire, lost.

"We need to get them out. My sister is down there."

Clarke swallowed hard, and nodded, slowly.

"Bellamy, its not that simple. Do you think Madi and I haven't tried? We were down here, alone, more than five years after Praimfaya and we aren't sure anybody else had survived in the entire human race. We tried to get to the bunker. We tried so many times and its just absolutely buried."

Bellamy tightened his jaw almost imperceptibly.

"I need to see my sister."

"I know."

Murphy jumped in.

"Look Bellamy, why don't you give us all five minutes to recover from I don't know, torture, slavery, and prison before sending us on another mission?"

Bellamy's fists tightened. This time it was obvious he was getting angry.

Echo scoffed. "I'm with Murphy. We need to recover our strength before we find our people."

Monty intervened, hoping to calm Bellamy down before it escalated.

"We need a plan. We need to get them out, and the best way to do that is with the Eligius ship. Presumably those who survived the biological weapon will not be willing to help, so we need another plan to take over the ship without killing anybody else. Then we can unbury the bunker."

Harper smiled softly at Monty and leaned into him.

Raven nodded in agreement. "We need a plan. We can't go into this blind. I'll need to consider all the options, Clarke and I will need to do an inventory of the equipment we have and how we might best use it…" already, her mind was racing a mile a minute.

Clarke looked at her. "It could take months to remove the rubble, even with the high quality equipment. We don't have a lot here after Praimfaya and we they might be out looking for us. We need to be careful, especially of Madi and Hannah."

Bellamy stood up and looked at all of them, angry.

"I've waited over six years to get to her. I need to know if she is ok. For all I know, they are running out of air down there! The bunker wasn't meant to last for this long and she could be dying and you all want to sit here, rest, and take another six months to get there. They could all be dead by then."

With that, Bellamy turned on his heel and stalked off.

Clarke was surprised. Madi stared at the dark space he left, equally puzzled.

Raven shrugged it off. "We usually just let him go off by himself for a few days when he gets like this."

"Days?"

"Oh sure, sometimes weeks, sometimes months. Once he thought he heard you in a radio Clarke, and when none of us believed him, well…. If it wasn't for Harper force feeding him…. Well, he wasn't always in his right mind. I don't think any of us saw him actually happy until he found out about Hannah."

Clarke looked at Madi, thinking about how she had felt until they had found each other. Madi had given Clarke so much purpose and a reason to love. She smiled at her, and Madi smiled back. Clarke gave her a soft affectionate hand on the shoulder, stood up and headed off in the direction Bellamy had left.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Clarke remembered the last time she took off in the dark for Bellamy. It felt like yesterday when he had walked away from the group angry on the beach trying to save the world from the City of Light. From that moment on, they were trying to save the world and they worked s hard to ensure it didn't fall apart at the seams, but she had noticed the difference in herself when he wasn't there. She worried about him. Her greatest fear was that she would die of Praimfaya like her mom's premonition but that she wouldn't be able to save Bellamy. She couldn't live with herself if he hadn't survived. She knew he wouldn't want to leave her, and that's why she never told him, entirely, how she had felt, and how badly she needed him too. It wasn't until Raven described how the group managed – they just left him in his misery instead of helping him come through the darkness – that she realized how much he needed her too.

Bellamy was sitting on a log, with his face in his hands when he heard Clarke approaching and stood up.

He looked at her, with hurt eyes. He started with "Clarke –" in a broken voice before trailing off and looking away. Clarke walked over and stood close to him, and grabbed his forearm, rubbing it gently with her thumb. She felt some of the tension in Bellamy relax.

"We will go after your sister, you know. We just need to make sure we do it right."

"I know."

"Then why are you so upset?"

"I…. its just that, I screwed up Clarke. We should have been down here a year ago, I didn't listen to Raven's warnings and I made us all prisoners. I made Octavia wait an extra year for me already, and now…" he choked back his tears. "Now she is going to have to wait longer and I don't even know if she is alive."

Clarke nodded.

"Bellamy, you did what you had to do. There was no way of knowing what would happen with the Eligius ship, and there was no way to know for sure you could have defended yourself, or have gotten back to earth without them. You did the right thing. You used your mind."

Bellamy shook his head.

Clarke took his other hand and held them both between them. "Yes, you did."

Bellamy just looked sorrowful and said… "No… I didn't. Clarke, I couldn't. It was too hard without you. I just… I just took the first chance I could to get back. To see for myself. To see if I was crazy to think you might have made it. I wasn't even worried about Octavia, I had assumed they were already out of the bunker a year ago. It wasn't until I was back, with you, that I realized how selfish I had been and how I had only thought of getting back, for the remote possibility of seeing you. Emori and Murphy lost their baby because of me."

"Bellamy…"

"No Clarke, listen. I needed you. I needed you so much, and you weren't there. I still need you."

Clarke looked up at him, with the air caught in her throat and her chest burning.

"Clarke… I loved you. I still love you. I've loved you for so long, I can't even remember when it happened, but it did, and losing you… there were so many things I wish I had said, but I didn't, and so many things I wish I had done, but I didn't, and now we are here and it turns out you have survived and meanwhile I spent six years worrying about the _wrong_ person, Clarke. I thought of you, I acted for you, I missed you. I assumed Octavia would be fine, that she had Kane, and Indra, and your Mom, to look after her and meanwhile she has been buried under mountains of rock. I've been so selfish."

Bellamy broke eye contact and looked away, but didn't let go of her hands.

Clarke forced the air in and out of her body. She pulled at his arms until he looked at her, with his sad brown eyes and his head hung low in sadness. She half smiled, and spoke softly just like she had the last time they were alone in the dark, trying to save their people. She pressed her forehead to his.

"Bellamy… you aren't the only one trying to forgive yourself. We will get everybody out of the bunker. Together. Like always."

Clarke leaned in and gave him a soft kiss on the lips, before pulling away.

"Do you still have hope?" she asked, looking into his eyes?

Bellamy looked at her, with a new calm in his eyes and silently moved his hands on the back of her neck, with his lips nearly touching hers.

"Always, Princess."

With that, Bellamy leaned in and kissed Clarke back with a strong but tender kiss, with Clarke wrapping her arms around him and Bellamy around her, until he was nearly lifting her off the ground and moving his arms to her waist, when Clarke tipped her head out of the kiss, her forehead not leaving his.

"Bellamy…. I loved you too. I love you."

Bellamy smiled with relief and happiness, breathing in deep long breaths.

With that, they leaned into each other, and they fell into each other in a deep kiss.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

The bunker stank. Stale air, body odour, the occasional smell of fresh or dried blood. What seemed like such a gift to be inside only 6 years and 2 weeks ago had become a trap, a grave, a place for animals foolish enough to want to survive Praimfaya. 1100 grounders who were not used to living in close proximity, who were used to wide open spaces, fresh air, adventure, excitement, and violence. When they closed the bunker all those years ago, they had no idea that they were putting the lid on a pressure cooker that was bound to explode. Dying outside in the fresh air would be a blessing compared to the situation they presently faced.

Still, they had hope. It was hard those first five years, but with some discipline and hard choices, they were able to survive. They had the countdown, after all. In the main hall where they all gathered to hear Octavia speak in the early days, was a wall with vertical checkmarks on it, counting down each day, each agonizing day until they could leave the bunker. That day had finally come. 1826 days (trying to explain the leap year to the grounders did _not_ go over well) and the tally had reached all the way around the room. They had celebrated – the end was near.

They had attempted to open the door. It was stuck. The strongest men and women of all the clans had tried their hand at opening it, to no avail. Jaha, Abby, and Marcus spoke of seismic waves that confirmed the theory – the bunker entrance laid beneath approximately 100 feet of rocks and debris. There was no other way out.

The pressure cooker exploded, like a bomb going off filled with shrapnel and debris.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

 _FLASHBACK_

 _Octavia relied a lot on Kane in those early days. She didn't trust Jaha, she never could. He brought them all the City of Light, he floated her mother, he stood idly by while Pike took control, leading to Lincoln's death. But Kane reminded her a lot of Clarke, willing to make hard choices, willing to accept that life would be hard._

 _Indra of course, was her constant companion. She could not lead the Grounders without her help. She, Indra, and Gaia all shared the commanders quarters. Kane respectfully kept his distance unless requested, which was often. She appreciated his counsel._

 _It wasn't long, of course, until she needed it._

 _There was room for 1200 people in the bunker – no more, no less. Every clan had sent their best, their strongest, their youngest to survive which meant that there were no natural deaths expected. The bunker was also not equipped like the Ark had been – although the majority of Skaikru still had IUDs to prevent pregnancy which would last a few more years, none of the Grounders did. Only five months after the doors closed did Octavia begin to realize that her fate would be the cruelest of all, and she would need to make decisions on how to handle babies that were being born into a bunker only fit for 1200._

 _She called upon Kane for his advice, with Indra watching closely. The three of them, working together, to try and find a solution. Kane was silent on this though, unwilling to offer an opinion._

 _"Octavia, I can't help you with this decision this time. What happened to you as a child, and your mother was my responsibility, and I can't live with that. Don't make me live with that again."_

 _Indra glared at Kane._

 _"What did you do?"_

 _Kane looked up, but not at Indra – at Octavia. Octavia swallowed._

 _"On the Ark, if a woman was found to be pregnant with a second child, the baby was aborted. If a woman gave birth to the second child, the mother would be killed and the child could live."_

 _Kane nodded, slowly. But he looked up with a pained expression._

 _"The only difference between the Ark and the bunker… is that people were allowed to have one child. Here, we only have space for 1200."_

 _The magnitude of this hit Octavia like a brick._

 _"No children. You are saying that even one, is too many."_

 _"Octavia, you can ask the engineers – but we know that we only had space for 1200 and that's if the bunker holds up for the next five years."_

 _Octavia clenched her firsts to the side of her head, understanding the magnitude of whatever decision she would be making._

 _She was going to leading a society identical to the one she spent her whole life loathing. The cruelty of it all strangled her and threatened to swallow her whole._

 _Kane and Indra looked at each other. Kane shook his head, and Indra nodded in understanding and turned to Octavia._

 _"You are a warrier Octavia, a heda. You must act like one."_

 _FLASHBACK_

 _Abby had forgiven Kane for allowing her to live. She understood – she had wanted to die herself because of what she had done to her people, her selfish need to have Kane live, knowing she couldn't go on without him. She would rather die than feel the consequences of her actions. Then, of course, she had forced Kane to make those choices for her. It had nearly broken him. He needed her. They were so lucky to be together. Whenever she worried about Clarke, or Raven, or any of the delinquents that she hoped were floating in orbit, he would calm her down. Remind them that Clarke and Bellamy together had an unbreakable bond, and that they could be sure they had made it up to the sky. He had, mistakenly, teased her once about potentially being a grandmother. Abby's mood had darkened immediately – not at the thought of being a grandmother, but at the worry of Clarke going through something like that, taking on that type of responsibility. She always worried so much for her friends, sacrificed so much so that her people could live, that Abby could not contemplate how she would cope with a child, somebody who would truly need her. But she smiled at the thought. Clarke, she knew, would be a great mother._

 _FLASHBACK_

 _Abby didn't know when it had happened. She was just exhausted. She assumed it was because of lower oxygen levels in the bunker, or the fact her body was struggling adjusting to life underground. At least even on the Ark, they had some sunlight. Here, they had darkness. She would find herself sitting at her desk, and feel an overwhelming urge to have a nap. She was hungrier than before, which didn't make sense. As a doctor, and the lone doctor at that, she was used to going days without a proper meal. She didn't think much of it – maybe it was just her age. She suspected menopause, but it seemed a bit early for that. She noticed Jackson looking at her oddly sometimes. But it wasn't until he caught her throwing up that he said anything. When she was wiping the mucous away from her face, fe looked at her._

 _"Abby… I think we need to talk about this."_

 _"Talk about what Jackson?"_

 _"Your… situation. You've been tired. You've been eating more. You've gained some weight. You just puked."_

 _"I'm getting old, Jackson, and I haven't been feeling well."_

 _"Abby, you are 43."_

 _"I know, its early for menopause, but that must be it. Probably a lack of Vitamin D made it come on more quickly."_

 _"No Abby…" he looked around, sheepishly. He wasn't expecting the conversation to go this way. He wasn't expecting to have to get so direct._

 _"Jackson, spit it out."_

 _"Fine… I didn't want to bring it up, but the last IUD you put in was before Jake was floated. I remember, because it was awkward doing it for you and I was a new apprentice. That was 8 years ago."_

 _Abby nodded, not really understanding what he was getting at. "And?"_

 _Jackson looked at the ground._

 _"Abby, it would have lost its effectiveness years ago as they are usually only good for five years. Abby, you are pregnant."_

 _Her eyes flashed up at his, ready to admonish him – before they went wide. He was right. And she knew what happened in the bunker when somebody was pregnant._


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

 _FLASHBACK_

 _"Abby, No!" Kane said, with a type of desperation and finality in his voice. "I won't let you do this. You must have an abortion."_

 _"No Marcus. I forgave you for saving my life when I asked you not to. You can't intervene now. Jackson knows my wishes, and he will respect them. You will respect them this time. You don't have a choice. This is my body. This is my choice. I know the consequences for a mother here when a child is born."_

 _Kane slumped down on the cot, his hands in his hair, beaten, but in a sudden understanding of the lengths people went through on the Ark to hide their second-born children so that both the parent and the child would live._

 _FLASHBACK_

 _Octavia observed Abby, huge in the stomach, looking at least nine months along but apparently only seven. She was working feverishly in the med bay. She and Jackson could barely keep up with the demand of 1200 people who were not keen on sharing quarters with one another. Old habits die hard, and it wasn't long after the bunker door closed that clans that had warred for nearly a century began picking flights amongst themselves. They might be WonKru, but they were a violent kru. The only ones who managed to stay out of it of course were the remaining Skaikru members, who generally were busy trying both keep the lights on and training the grounders willing to learn the systems._

 _Kane's request ran through her head again._

 _"Octavia, I am here to make a suggestion to your earlier ruling on women who have children. A child needs its mother. You know that more than anybody. Instead of the women bringing dishonour on the klan, it be the father of the child to suffer death by a thousand cuts. Only when the father cannot be identified will the mother be killed. We need women more than men to repopulate."_

 _"Kane, you have a personal interest in this request."_

 _"Octavia, how can I watch the mother of my child die simply for giving birth? At the very least, I need to have the opportunity to sacrifice myself."_

 _"Abby will never allow it."_

 _"That's why I need you to make this change. You can justify it on the basis of the repopulation issue. It's true."_

 _"I'll think about it."_

 _"On top of that, Abby is essential to mankinds survival. You must see that. Her and Jackson are the only medical experts we have, and their research on radiation will be critical the first few days on the ground."_

 _"I said, I will think about it."_

 _With that, Kane nodded, and walked out of her office._

 _FLASHBACK_

 _Jackson and Abby were alone in Med Bay. She had asked that Kane not be notified that the baby was coming. She couldn't let him know._

 _Fortunately, she and Jackson had been working their four hours together when she felt it happen. The crushing labour pains. She didn't remember it being this bad on the Ark when she had Clarke. Of course she was twenty years older now. The pain felt like it was ripping her in two. It didn't make sense. She was certainly larger than she had been in her last pregnancy, but she was sure this was too early. At least two months too early._

 _Jackson shouted. "it's crowning!" and Abby pushed, and pushed again, sweat dripping down her face and her jaw contorting. She felt the release of the baby and Jackson catch it. But instead of his usual excitement, his face looked serious. Abby knew it was not good news. Without speaking, Jackson immediately went to work with the tiny baby boy on a table, not more than three pounds, trying to resuscitate it. But the bunker didn't have any of the equipment they needed. He looked down at the lifeless baby boy and shook his head… partly in relief, knowing that both Abby and Kane could be saved. Abby's face showed her confusion and shock, when all of a sudden, another pain went through her and she could barely breathe. "Jackson! Another one!"_

 _Jackson ran over. "The after-birth?"_

 _"No. Another baby."_

 _Jackson looked down, and sure enough, another head was crowning. He went back into action, asking her to push, telling her to stay calm, understanding now why she was so large at seven months, why she was delivering early, considering factors like her age…._

 _This time, a baby girl was born a few critical ounces heavier than her twin brother…. and she let out a soft cry._

 _Jackson went to work on the second baby. She was bigger than her brother had been. She was breathing on her own, crying out at the world, ready to be fed. Jackson handed the baby girl and baby boy to Abby, to say hello and goodbye all at the same time. Abby's eyes softened in a way that they only could when looking at her own child, like they had gazed upon Clarke so many times before she had grown up far too fast._

 _Jackson knew they had to act fast to do the most daring thing he had ever done. Jackson, who follows on the rules, who refused to give more blood to the chancellor, knew there was a chance now._

 _"Abby, we have to hide this baby. We have to hide her now."_

 _"What?"_

 _"Abby. Your son… he died. But with his death, you can all live. Can't you see? Nobody knew you were pregnant with twins. Only you and I knew. Your son has died so that his sister, you, and Kane can live."_

 _"What are you talking about Jackson?"_

 _"They are only going to look for proof of the death of one infant. One. Not two. We can hide her. You will be lactating for a while anyways as a result of the birth. We have the Med Bay storage that only you and I have access to. We can hide her there."_

 _"For how long Jackson?"_

 _"We are only here for another two years. There is enough space to hide her for that long. Either you or I will always be with her. The only problem is Kane, I am not sure how he will get to see her…"_

 _Abby shook her head. "He can't. Marcus can't meet her. Not yet."_

 _Jackson looked at her, appalled. "It's his daughter!"_

 _"Because it will arouse suspicion. He will be too happy, too relieved, too at ease. He can't be. He can't be in here all the time, people would wonder why. No. We have to do this on our own. In two years, she will still be small enough to hide and then when the doors open, I will tell him about her."_

 _Jackson nodded. Abby sat and fed the baby girl, laying her son out on the blanket beside her. Jackson silently moved to the medical storage area to get the space ready for its new resident._

 **Thoughts, opinions? Do you like it, hate it? Any suggestions on where you want me to take the story? I want to hear from you!**


	24. Chapter 24

_FLASHBACK_

Chapter 24

[Note: I can't believe how far this story has gotten but also how far we have to go! Kind of exciting to think about Season 5 and how they will manage it. As always, feedback welcome, and sometimes followed!]

 _FLASHBACK_

 _Abby had brought the dead baby boy to Kane to see and he immediately cried out in sorrow for her and him, and held her close. Kane was more devastated than he had realized he would be. Having never had children on the Ark because life there had hardened him too much, and all the stress that they had gone through in the little time they had on the ground, it didn't make sense to want children. But he wanted that connection. He had tried to connect with the delinquents, and in some ways succeeded, but it had only served to open his eyes to having missed being a father. Knowing that kind of love. But he hadn't dared think of it – not when to have a child would mean certain death for Abby, or possibly himself. So he was happy, but devastated to see his tiny, fragile baby boy._

 _After they had grieved, the baby was brought to Octavia for confirmation of his death and then his body was disposed of in the waste recycler._

 _Abby had left the baby girl with Jackson, of course. She had named her Vera, after Marcus's mother. She knew that wen he found out, he would be devastated and angry, and she knew honouring him in this small way was important._

 _Unfortunately though, as could be anticipated, Abby distanced herself from the father of her child. Abby claimed she was always working, always treating injuries, illnesses, vitamin deficiencies. Of course, she couldn't tell him about the baby girl. He couldn't know. Kane continued to counsel Octavia on the hard decisions, and that kept him busy as well. The moral issues that arose were significant. What is the appropriate path forward when a child of 16, has a child? Who is killed then? What do you do with the body of a grounder that culturally is burned, but for which no facility exists and must be instead recycled to be made into compost? The questions were endless and the answers never welcomed. He knew Abby would need some space after the death of their child. But he also loved her, and although she certainly grieved, he thought some of her behavior was unusual. Rushing back to med bay in the middle of the night because she forgot something. Working a 48 hour shift at the med bay when Jackson fell ill, even though there were no patients half the time. Taking extra food whenever it was available. They were arguing one day, across the table from each other at their designated mealtime._

 _"Abby, you need to talk to me. You are holding something back."_

 _"No Marcus, I am not."_

 _"Abby we trust each other. I trust you. You trust me. We tell each other everything."_

 _"Marcus, don't. Just don't."_

 _"Abby…"_

 _"Marcus, I don't love you anymore!"_

 _Kane sat back in his chair, agape, not comprehending what had happened. His face looked so hurt._

 _"I'm sorry Marcus. I have to go."_

 _Abby rushed off, grabbing what remained of her food rations, realizing that she had almost broken. She couldn't tell him. She and Jackson had managed to hide Vera for eight months. She was such a sweet little girl, quiet too – she had learned early not to cry, not that anybody could have heard her behind that large storage unit where she was hidden so often. She had to start on solids now, so Abby and Jackson had been hoarding some from their own portions, as well as what was allocated for treatment. Sometimes, people would be sent back to their quarters with instructions to fast for the day, and in the meantime, rations would be ordered to the med bay for them._

 _Abby rushed into the med bay, nodding at Jackson who had worked the nightshift and was happy to get some relief. He walked out of med bay, looking around carefully. Without seeing Kane in the shadows, he walked back to his quarters._

 _Kane wasn't angry. He was hurt, confused, and sure something was going on. He didn't know what. He knew he had to find out, and he grimaced thinking of his former self on the Ark, tracking Abby's every move. 'This is different' he reasoned. 'This time, we are partners and in love and I deserve to know whats going on.'_

 _Kane took a deep breath, and pushed open the door to med bay, not breathing, tip toeing to avoid being heard._

 _It was mysteriously quiet. No patients today yet. He saw the light on in the back storage room. He knew the door was kept locked, and he tried the handle anyways. It wouldn't give. But all of sudden, he was aware that Abby's footsteps were coming back towards the door, and he pressed himself to the side of the wall to remain hidden in the shadows. Suddenly he heard Abby's voice – "I'll be right back honey." Abby pushed the door open, and almost imperceptible to the human ear but for the silence of the med bay, Kane heard a baby gurgle and laugh._

 _Abby walked out the door and practically into Kane. He no longer cared what she had said. He knew what had happened. He knew what lengths Abby would have gone to in order to save her baby. He realized the reasons for the last minute trips to med bay, the late shifts, the fact she seemed to take her food "to go" more and more lately, and how her breasts had only recently subsided and ceased milk production. He had seen women do it before on the Ark – all the signs were there – and yet still he had missed them._

 _Kane put his hands around Abby's neck and head, and gave her a deep, passionate kiss._

 _"Eight months, twelve days." He said._

 _"What?" Abby asked._

 _"That's how old she is. That's how many days it's been since our baby boy died. And that's how old our baby girl is."_

 _Abby nodded softly, knowing she could no longer hide this from him, her forehead on his chin now receiving a tender kiss._

 _"I named her Vera. I love you Marcus. I love you so much, and I am so sorry I kept this from you. I just couldn't have you coming to med bay to see her. Octavia would grow suspicious, and..."_

 _"Shhhh. I want to see her."_

 _Abby nodded, unlocking and opening the storage room door, and quietly, they walked in._


	25. Chapter 25

FLASHBACK

Kane's mood changed overnight, Octavia observed.

She had known Abby had been pushing Kane away for months, grieving for her child. Octavia and Indra agreed that they must have finally reconnected. Octavia was relieved, because they had more pressing matters for Kane to work on than grieving for a dead child.

Unsurprisingly, Azgeda had been causing more problems amongst the clans. People were itching to get out. There had been more than one person caught by the guards trying to open the door, risking the safety of everybody. Fortunately, nobody had been successful but Ovtavia had to assert her authority in hundreds of ways. People had begun to question how she could had won the conclave. She had to contain three uprisings and she needed Kane to help analyze the situation. He had been through this before and how people act in situations with limited space to roam and live. The clans may have warred with each other but none of them could have predicted how they would feel four years underground. Octavia went to the main hall and with a knife, marked another day.

Flashback

Octavia scratched the last mark in the main hall with people screaming with absolute ecstasy and relief.

She looked at the people she helped lead for the past five years, age and stress showing on her face. Lincoln would be proud. They had made it. She could do it.

"We are Wonkru. We have done this together. We have survived together. Out of the ashes of praimfaya we will rise, and we will grow out of the earth a new people, a better people, together!"

The crowd roared and cheered. Any doubts of the past five years of her leadership were ignored. They would be free at last.

Octavia went up to do the honours. The door unlocked, but wouldn't lift. She mustered all her strength. Nothing. She called on several other grounders to help lift. Nothing.

That's when the chaos began.

Octavia was barricaded in section 4J7-18of the bunker. Kane knew immediately something was wrong when the bunker wouldn't open, and he had rushed Skaikru personnel into the essential services section that held medbay, farms, oxygen, and hydro. There was no traditional dorms in that section but there was no time. Those who had built the bunker had clearly planned for a revolt and had these systems on lockdown when needed - Jaha had discovered this plan in the engineering system and spent months in the first year locating the mechanism to lock it should it ever be needed. The day that was meant to be their salvation was the day that was almost the end.

Kane had grabbed Indra and Octavia in the aftermath of the failure to open. He insisted they get out of there. Octavia and Indra had tried to stop the chaos but agreed it was out of hand. Even their guards had abandoned them in their fury and it was no longer safe.

So here they were. Helpless as they watched people killing each other and acting out in horrible ways from the surveillance systems.

Kane had barricaded and locked down the essential systems. They fed everybody they could, supplying food for those on the outside through several pipes connected to the mess hall, as before. But now the grounders were fighting over it. It was as if they couldn't cope with the loss of hope, lack of order - they split into factions again. Many joined Azgeda, others Tri kru. They fought constantly. Estimatations were that there were only 800 grounder survivors at this point and Octavia was seen as the one who had failed them all. It had been over a year since she had attempted to open the door, wanting to triumphantly lead the out of the dark to the light. How naive she had been.

She had never needed Bellamy so badly in her life as she did now. She had tried to emulate him, tried to lead - but when push came to shove, she couldn't do it. She had failed them. She had failed Lincoln.

And then, of course, the generator failed.

"How bad is it?" Octavia asked.

"Bad." Jaha acknowledged. "We have a backup generator with only a quarter of the capacity and repairs on the main generator will take months."

"So much we turn the lights off."

"It's not that simple, but I agree we need to start there. The electricity powers the farms, the oxygen pumps, the hydro recycler..."

"Without it, we have nothing?"

"Yes"

Indra stood stone faced. Kane's arms that had been folded across his chest went to his head and he turned his back to the wall and screamed in frustration.

Octavia's face contorted Into something indescribable. She stamped to a wall and punched her fist into it. Again and again and again until her knuckles were raw, bleeding, and likely a finger was broken.

"How long?" She stopped to ask.

"Based on our estimates, with the recent grounder deaths and with maximum conservation with half size rations and the back up generator assuming it doesn't fail... we have one month. We need two to fix the generator. If it can be fixed."

Octavia leaned her head against the wall. Then, she started hitting her head against it, hard. Then it all went black.

She woke up in medbay. She hadn't been here in a long time. Abby or Jackson usually treated her in her quarters but of course, that hadn't been an option since the day she had failed everybody. She now understood what it truly meant to be on the other side, and she wondered how Jaha, Kane and Abby hadn't cracked under the immense pressure.

Then she remembered Jaha and the City of Light... and she was finally willing to forgive him. Forgive all of them. Forgive everybody who had felt this pressure and Octavia's youthful ignorance as to why things were the way they were. She suddenly understood why she had been trapped under the floor, why her mother had been floated, why Lincoln had been killed, why Ilian lit Arkadia on fire, why Bellamy and Clarke acted in ways she didn't like. People make terrible decisions because there is no way to make everybody happy and you are trying to do your best and keep everybody alive. Most of all, its exhausting. With power and responsibility comes the exhaustion of making hard decisions.

Octavia turned her head to the back of the med bay. She saw the medical storage unit, and thought she heard Abby talking in there when she was sure Jackson wasn't around. Octavia gently lifted herself up and to the window, peering through, when she saw her.

A little girl. About three years old with dark hair and brown eyes. That Octavia had never seen before. Octavia knew every single one of the children under five in the bunker because she personally had beheaded one person - a mother or father, sometimes both for being uncooperative- for the crime each time it occurred. She took a special interest in these children, understanding their concern, grateful they would never truly understand what happened to their parents, not like Octavia who watched her mother get floated.

Suddenly, it hit her.

Twins. The baby boy, who Abby had shown her three years ago. She had been tricked. It had been a decoy. Abby and Kane had hid a child from her all these years to avoid punishment, avoid answering for their crimes. Now Octavia would be forced to take away what this child actually considered her mom or dad when there was only one month of life left underground. But should it be Kane, her trusted adviser or Abby, their trusted doctor? She knew this was not a decision she could take lightly.

Regaining her strength, she huffed out of med bay, slamming the door behind her.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Jaha was walking as brusquely down the hall as he could, with a black case clunking alongside his leg, finally happy to have a piece of good news.

"Where is the commander?" he asked Miller in the hallway.

"You mean Octavia? She hasn't been the commander for months now Jaha, you realize that this place has been a complete shit show for the past year?"

"Do you know where she is or not?"

Miller rolled his eyes. When Jaha got something in his head he was almost worse than Raven. "Yeah, Jackson told me she left medical, and I've seen her hanging out in the agro bay smelling leaves and algae before so you could try there.

Jaha rushed off in that direction, as Miller shook his head and walked away.

Jaha burst into the agro bay and saw Octavia standing quietly, looking at a grey wall and looking very introspective.

"Commander, I have good news."

Octavia turned around slowly, rage burning in her eyes, but curious. "What?"

"The ground. People are on the ground. Elgius corporation mining space ship I think – I hadn't thought of them in years, but they were prisoners shipped off into space a century ago, presumed dead and lost. They must have landed a few days ago. I've never successfully heard radio communications from the ground before, but today…it sounds like its their internal radios that we have tapped into so they don't know we are here yet. I'm not sure how we could have suddenly tapped into their internal communication system, it doesn't really make sense without intervention…"

Octavia snapped out of her current thoughts, and into these new ones.

"Who are they? Can they help us get out?"

"Yes, I think so. I wanted you to make first contact. It seems they landed a few hours ago and from what I have heard they have put three prisoners out to test the air for radiation that they had brought back in with little to no visible affects. I rushed down to tell you."

"Set it up now Jaha, I want to hear. I don't want this to be another figment of your imagination like the City of Light. Nothing for over six years and now we hear something? It's a bit convenient."

Jaha ignored her last comments and got to work on the side of the agro bay setting up the radio. It took a few minutes, but then all of sudden, she could hear it. Yes, it sounded…. They were humans, and they were speaking English, but they had strange and harsh accents and they sounded panicked and there was a lot of static.

"Whats going on with them?"

Jaha listened. "I'm not sure – it sounds like chaos compared to earlier."

Octavia strained her ears to cut out the accents and the obvious panic. She was concerned – this was the most outside human contact they had since Praimfaya. What was going on?

"Captain – uncontrollable illness – blood from eyes, nose, vomiting blood"

"—Sykes is down!"

"Is it radiation?"

"Where are the prisoners!? They have turned off their shockers. They must be responsible?"

Followed by various retching of the individuals and the moans of pain and discomfort… it wasn't long before Octavia recalled the symptoms they were describing.

"Biological warfare."

Jaha looked at her, puzzled.

"When we first started fighting the grounders, they sent Murphy back to camp infected with a virus. We didn't know, of course, but it wasn't long before everybody who had even been in remotely close proximity started getting very sick, puking up blood and dying. They said it was used to…. soften the battlefield."

She turned her attention back to the radio.

"(cough) prisoners…. getting away…. shoot them with mining lasers…. (cough)"

The full understanding of what she was hearing suddenly came together for her. A spaceship. Prisoners. A sudden connection to an internal communication system in the ship. Biological warfare with a distinctive grounder element that it seemed the prisoners were immune from. Prisoners willingly escaping into whatever was left of the world.

She looked at Jaha, hardened with years of emotion and the weight of leadership who finally had some relief in sight. "Can't you see? The prisoners are Bellamy, Clarke, Raven, and the others!"

NOTE: I should mention, one thing that has bothered me about my story for the past few weeks has been how I never addressed Abby's illness/leftover Alie brain. I couldn't figure out how to do it, and I think its too late for me in this story to even address but yes, I have thought about it and sort of lamented about my failure to include it! Especially since I am fairly certain Abby will die next season (Clarke can't have her mother, her new daughter, _and_ true love by the end of the show... that would just be too wonderful for her). Anyhow in terms of trying to craft a realistic Season 5, I know I failed there. Happy to hear some thoughts on how you think you would have dealt with it or what might happen in Season 5!


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

The situation had changed quickly, and Octavia hadn't had time to deal with Abby and Kane. Secretly, she didn't want to deal with it. She knew what it was like to lose a parent, and more so what it was like to have a parent die for you because you were born. Hardly something she was emotionally equipped to handle now, knowing what they know.

She had ordered an emergency meeting of the top personnel in their temporary command centre outside of the hydro bay. They stood around the radio, which had quieted down significantly after the angry cries of the people on the ship who had not been wholly successful in gunning down the "prisoners" and were clearly in the midst of a medical crisis.

"They are part of a mining company. There must be a way to use that equipment to get us out of here."

"Yes, Octavia, there should be… but it is different than mining for minerals. If they were using mining lasers, it means that any contact with the bunker could obliterate everybody inside. We would need everybody to be away from the top levels…."

"Which is where most of the grounders are."

"Yes, unfortunately."

"Well, this situation is at an end. We will have a way out soon. We can convince them to come down."

"Maybe, but at significant risk to the entire bunker. We shouldn't do anything until we know their plan, and who knows when they will have a plan! Even _if_ it is Bellamy and Raven, they just fled the ship that was keeping them hostage. They were shot at, and somebody named Trey was killed so the others could also be injured. We need to bide our time."

"They are _killing_ each other up there! We need to get out!"

"I know, Octavia, but without a plan this would be a suicide mission. We need to get in contact with Bellamy and Raven, and to understand what the plan is and how we can help."

"How do you suggest we contact them then?"

"We keep trying with the radio. Now that they are on the ground, between Raven and Monty there is definitely a better chance we will get a successful transmission."

"Fine. We can wait. But in the meantime, we need to consider how we convince 800 angry blood thirty grounders to cooperate. And those who understand the radio will so everything to boost its signal and amplify it. Grounder language only to be spoken on the radio as well – in case anybody on the Elgius ship did survive, we can't have them knowing our plan."

Octavia nodded at Jaha, Kane, Indra, and the others, and marched out of the room.


	28. Chapter 28

WARNING: ADULT CONTENT NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL READERS.

[Note: I am not sure about what rating this falls under, but please do not read this chapter if you are only comfortable reading the lowest maturity content. It shouldn't really impact the story at all and you can proceed safely to Chapter 29.

Chapter 28

After he pulled away from their kiss, there was an awkward moment. A moment where despite all Clarke and Bellamy had shared together, that they had just shared, seemed uncomfortable, and unnatural. Bellamy sort of coughed, wanting to confess what had happened on the Ark with Raven and Echo, not knowing why he felt he had to share that.

"Clarke…. On the Ark…I wasn't sure if you were alive."

"Shhh…. I know…"

"No, Clarke, I thought you were dead. Had I known you were alive, and had been contacting me every day…. I wouldn't have tried to move on. I never did move on, but I tried, and…"

"Bellamy, stop. It's not like the thought hadn't crossed my mind. When you showed up holding Hannah, I thought she was yours with either Echo or Raven. I was just relieved that it wasn't."

Bellamy nodded, slowly. "So you are ok with what happened?"

"Of course. We had never talked about how we felt. I… didn't let you. On purpose. I was so afraid. After Finn, and Lexa…. I just assumed that anybody that I loved was going to die. That love was weakness. I knew if I had ever admitted how I felt, if we ever admitted, how we felt – it could have killed us. In the end, surviving with my nightblood…. I knew that it would have only killed you, and possibly all our friends if you had wanted to stay. I was right. Love was weakness. Thinking with my heart could get you killed."

Bellamy eyes welled, and he reached out and stroked her hair and chin softly.

"But…. Since finding Madi and living for five years without a constant threat looming over my shoulders made me realize that love is so much more than weakness. That love makes some of us stronger, if we let it. I thought of you Bellamy, and how you were always able to make such difficult decisions and how much you loved your sister, and how that gave you so much strength. I knew that since taking Madi in, loving her like she was my own child, had opened my heart to that possibility. I thought of how you wanted to tell me what you were thinking on that beach six years ago, that I refused to hear, and how brave you were. Love wasn't weakness – I was just afraid to love again. How I had been a coward with so many things."

Bellamy nodded, with his forehead on hers, tasting the salty tears – he didn't know if they were hers or his.

"Bellamy, I am not afraid anymore."

With that, Clarke reached up and put her arms on the back of his head and kissed him, hard. Bellamy responded instantly, and both of them wanted to feel alive so badly that the need was urgent, desperate even. Their hands were tangled in each others hair, their breathing heavy, panting, and when Bellamy sank down onto the ground, Clarke was instantly on top of him straddling him and positioning herself. They moved wordlessly but aggressively, taking each others clothes off and their own clothes off, whatever was more convenient. Bellamy slipped himself into her, and they both moaned softly feeling the simultaneous instant relief and tension as they moved together, sucking hard on each others necks and kissing each other hard whenever they weren't feeling the intensity to strong that they couldn't function.

Bellamy pulled Clarke close and in one swift movement, pulled her down so that he was on top of her and in seconds, Clarke felt the dizzying intensity heighten at the same time Bellamy released into her. She felt his warmth fill her body, as they both collapsed on the rough ground of for forest, breathless. Bellamy held Clarke close, grabbing some of their clothes and covering her in them, where they rested for ten minutes before Clarke started kissing Bellamy again with urgency.

"What are you doing?" he asked, surprised.

"It's been over six years for me Bellamy. I need this."

Bellamy of course, was more than willing to oblige.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

The next morning, Clarke and Bellamy headed back to their camp to consider the next options. Madi was already eyeing them suspiciously, but it seemed the others had assumed this would happen from the get go, and made it pretty much a non issue.

"Right, since you two are back now – let's talk about the plan to get them out of the bunker." Raven barked. "We should check to see if they are attempting communication with us yet."

"That won't work Raven. I have been trying for six years to contact them with my radio."

"Ha! That shitty thing. Don't worry Clarke, I've been up since 5am making improvements. On top of that, when we landed on the Elgius ship I amplified their signal so that it could be heard over the radio and so that we could hear their internal communications if we were ever to get off of the ship. Lucky for all of us I had that foresight."

"Lucky indeed." Murphy joked.

Raven ignored him. Six years in tight quarters had mended their relationship to fun banter. The understood each other now. She forgave him. He forgave himself.

"So we need to listen to the radio to find out the situation. I've been listening all morning and it's been pretty quiet but we should take turns listening to it. Clarke and Bellamy, you take the first shift. Madi has agreed to show me where some of the tech you keep is located, and I am going to see what I can find of use there…"

She nodded at Bellamy and Clarke, knowing what had likely happened, and approving of it. Bellamy deserved some happiness. They walked over to the radio that Raven had already noticeably improved and set themselves up to listen to static.

Bellamy was once again deep in thought about the bunker. He had got Clarke back, but his sister was still below the earth, under the floor, and it was his job to get her out. Clarke had gotten out her sketchbook and Bellamy was lost in thought when they heard a crackling on the radio.

"Ai laik Okteivia kom Wonkru. Ai gaf gouthru klir."

Bellamy shock was palpable and he was frozen in shock. Clarke realized immediately what was happening and grabbed the mouthpiece.

"Ai laike Clarke kom Skaikru. Yu gonplei ste odon."


	30. Chapter 30

Bellamy was still speechless, but Clarke was able to continue speaking to Octavia as though no time had passed. Clarke was already thinking with her head, focused on the mission. He managed to look at her in admiration after the relief that Octavia was alive finally sunk in.

It didn't take long for Clarke to provide a brief update as to who was with her on the ground and what she and Bellamy knew about the miners. Bellamy never spoke a grounder language well, and certainly the past six years had not improved this skill, so he stayed silent while the women discussed the issues. The situation in the bunker was bad, and had deteriorated after they realized they were stuck, separating Skaikru from the rest of the clans who were fighting among themselves to relived their anger and frustration with more and more dying every day.

Clarke realized the urgency of the situation quickly and Octavia emphasized the need to get out of the bunker. Once they had they had caught up on that discussion, Clarke indicated they had to speak to Raven. She then passed the microphone to Bellamy, who just barely choked out "O...".

Octavia's heart was so heavy hearing Bellamy's voice. She knew he wouldn't be happy with the way she had managed to control the bunker, and she was even more disappointed that the bunker had clearly fallen apart under her leadership. But they couldn't talk now, not with his limited ability to speak any grounder language. She just said "see you soon Bell" and then ended the transmission.

Bellamy stood there with the microphone in shock. Clarke gently opened his hand and released it for him. "She couldn't risk Elgius hearing out plans. She couldn't get emotional Bellamy. She is trying to lead her people and it hasn't been easy for her." He nodded, his disappointment palpable.

"Let's talk to Raven about this. We need to take over the Eglius ship."

"Not so fast, Princess." a harsh accent announced itself from behind her, and Bellamy and with it, the click of what she knew was some type of weapon.

Clarke and Bellamy whipped around and behind them was a gruff officer from the Elgius ship holding what appeared to be a laser gun to Madi's head.


	31. Chapter 31

Madi was terrified.

She had gone into the woods, hoping to locate some berries for everybody since she knew of a few hiding spots. She knew based on what Clarke had told her that nobody in space ate delicious fresh fruit, and she wanted to give them something to show they were welcome. She had heard rustling in the forest, and had turned, thinking she might see a squirrel or, if it was a good day, a rabbit - and instead, the barrel of a weapon she had never seen before stared down at her. He grabbed her harshly by the arms, and began to haul her off, before she screamed "Clarke"!

He had stopped dragging her towards his ship at that. "Clarke? You are that little girl Madi, and Clarke has been sending those messages into space to Bellamy, hasn't she? Well, since I suspect she is responsible for the virus that nearly killed half my ship, I think I might get my revenge on her as opposed to a little girl. Where is she?"

Madi refused to speak. She was brave, but still young. But she gave it away when she nervously glanced in the direction of the camp. "Ah ha! This way then!". He dragged her off in the direction of camp where she came face to face with Clarke and Bellamy who were clearly stunned at this turn of events when they were left unarmed.

They were staring face to face with her, trying to look calm. Clarke was clearly panicked and they both had their arms up.

"Give her back. Don't hurt her." Clarke said in a high pitch than normal.

"Sorry, no promises, Clarke. I've heard of you, Princess. Not only did I hear you talking to Bellamy everyday, but I heard you talking about Madi every day. I've know how you feel about them. I heard Bellamy getting tortured, admitting the guilt he had for leaving you behind, for you dying. Of course, we knew you were still alive. Kind of cruel to keep two star crossed lovers apart and not tel them, but now that we know how vicious you are, I don't feel badly. How about, instead of me watching MY loved ones get killed by your disgusting virus, you get a chance to watch it yourself, before I kill you?"

"No!"

But before the word was even out of her mouth, he aimed the gun at Bellamy and shot him in the leg. It wasn't an ordinary gun - this one obviously had laser accuracy and melted flesh. Bellamy was on the ground, withering in pain. "No!" Clarke shouted, tear welling up in her eyes.

"No? Not him? Well, then, I'll have to turn it on your precious daughter, if you insist."

He pointed the laser at Madi, and Clarke lunged for his legs. Madi managed to scramble away but not before he regained his balance and began shooting at her, hitting rocks and sending debris flying as she tried to avoid the blasts. Clarke lunged for him again, but he turned and pointed the gun at Clarke's head.

That's when Bellamy managed to crawl over and grab his leg, giving Clarke an opportunity to elbow him in the back and with it, his balance. He still held fast to his gun though, pointing at them from the ground. His eyes squinted - he grinned - and he blasted the gun skyward, not hitting Clarke who had finally gotten up, so what?

Suddenly, there was a rumble and Clarke knew what had happened, but it was too late. The landslide from the rockface next to their camp came tumbling down on all four of them.


	32. Chapter 32

The noise of a loud crash and tremors from the direction of camp got the attention of Raven, Alloy, Echo, Emori, Murphy, Monty, and Harper. They all converged on where camp had been to discover the landslide that had occurred. They had no idea what was under there or what caused it, but they began shifting rocks, moving as quickly as possible, when Murphy shouted "Hey! Looks like one of our friends from Elgius survived might have been responsible!"

Murphy hauled the crewman up, and he was clearly worse for wear, covered in dirt and serious gashes from his head and an open wound on his leg.

"Well well well, what do we have here? A mining blaster!" Raven exclaimed, walking forward awkwardly and slowly over top of the fallen dirt. She picked it up and aimed it at his head. "Where are the others?"

The man shifted his eyes just slightly to the remaining rubble. Raven handed the gun to Murphy, and gave him a knowing, angry look. He smirked, and bashed the guy in the head with the side of the blaster so that he toppled over.

"Let's unbury them! If they aren't in an air pocket they could be suffocating to death. Harper get a space ready for CPR!"

As quickly as possible, with Echo and Alloy doing a huge amount of the heavy lifting, the rocks and debris were moved. First, they found Madi. She was inconsolable, coughing, crying, and telling them it was all her fault. Harper did her best to calm her down but Madi was shrieking - "It's - ALL my fault, I did this, I killed them!" while her entire body wracked with sobs.

Finally, they found Bellamy, seriously injured and unconscious, but breathing fine. His leg was the worst of it, the mining blast combined with the landslide causing Harper significant concern, as she had only been taught how to treat these injuries with the ship. Alloy moved Bellamy silently to Harper's triage space and set him down before continuing to dig through the rubble.

Finally, Emori found her blonde hair, now matted against her head from mud and dirt. They hauled her out.

Harper checked her pulse and her breathing and did her initial examination, while everybody waited with baited breath except Madi, who continued to sob and attempted to grasp at Clarke which Harper would not let her do.

"She is breathing, but barely. Her pulse is very weak. I think she may have several broken ribs, and I am fairly certain a punctured lung. If we don't treat her soon... I don't think she will make it."

Madi sobbed even harder.

"What do we do?" Raven demanded.

"We need... we need a small plastic tube. I need it to be sanitized. I need a syringe. I need a small knife or scalpel. This all needs to be sanitized."

"Harper... you've never done this before, have you?" Emori asked.

"No. I haven't. I read about it on the Ark in the first years, as it seemed a possibility that in space we could have similar blunt force trauma. Of course, I had much of the equipment I needed up there. I don't know where to find what we need here."

They suddenly turned to look at Madi who was shaking with anxiety and shock.

"Madi..." Raven asked, kindly. "Madi, we need a few things, and we know you know where to get them. Can you help us save Clarke?"

Madi looked at Raven, and began gasping through her tears. "What... What... What do you need?"

Harper listed off the items, and Madi got to her feel. "I'll go with you." Echo announced. "You are a strong warrior, helping Clarke when you are injured. Your clan would be very proud. Let's go."

They ran off quickly, and Harper turned her attention back to Bellamy.

"It's strange. Other than his leg, he seems like should be capable of waking up. I've tried all the traditional methods to see if he is just in shock, but it's almost like the last time..."

"Last time?" Raven asked.

"When he saw Clarke, remember, he fainted? He was in the same state."

"What of it?"

"Well... I also noticed at some of our medical check ups... some symptoms. I had attributed them to grief before... but..."

 _FLASHBACK_

 _"Thanks for coming in Bellamy. I know you don't like these medical check ups, but I think its good for me to know what condition everybody is in, and when you take things seriously, everybody takes things seriously."_

 _"No problem Harper. Plus, there isn't much to do on this satellite, is there? It''s good to have something to break up the ... the... you know...of our lives"_

 _"Monotony?"_

 _"Yeah, exactly."_

 _Harper proceeded with the physical check, and although everybody had been losing some weight and feeling some of the effects of being in space as opposed to on the ground, and their algae only diet, it seemed Bellamy was doing tolerably well other than a few dizzy spells and the occasional neck stiffness which seemed unexplained, but likely attributable to poor sleeping quarters._

 _"Just a few more questions Bellamy. I am hoping to get a sense of everybody's mental state, considering how long we've been in space, and I want to ensure if anything changes, I have something to compare it against."_

 _"Sure" he said, shrugging his shoulders._

 _"How have you been dealing with everything we left behind?"_

 _Bellamy sat there, staring at her. Harper waited patiently._

 _"Bellamy, you don't have to answer the question if you don't want to."_

 _"I... I... well... Clarke... left her behind."_

 _"I know, Bellamy. It's been hard on all of us, but especially you that she sacrificed herself so we could live. You were very close to Clarke, weren't you?"_

 _"I... I sometimes ... feel... like I don't care."_

 _"You don't care about Clarke?"_

 _"Of course I care about Clarke... do... I don't care what people think."_

 _"About your feelings for Clarke, you mean?"_

 _"No... that... she is dead. I don't agree. I don't know for sure. She might have survived."_

 _"Bellamy... that's extremely unlikely."_

 _"I know. I know. But when I think about her not being alive... I think there isn't much point to me being alive."_

 _"Bellamy, we all need you. You are our leader, and your sister is waiting for you."_

 _"I know... its just... look, Harper, can we wrap this up? I don't think its helping."_

 _"Of course Bellamy. I am not a trained medical health professional, but it's good to ask these questions. If you ever want to talk about it, I am here, you know."_

 _"Yes, I know."_

 _"Anything else you want to ask about Bellamy?"_

 _"Just one thing... is it just me, or are there no smells up in the Ark?"_

 _Harper laughed. "It's not just you, I haven't smelled much since we got here either other than the lavatory disaster a few weeks ago."_

 _"Right... its just... I feel like I can't smell anything."_

 _"I wouldn't worry about it Bellamy. There are significantly less smells here than on the ground. If it becomes an issue, we can deal with it but let's wait until we are back on the ground."_

 _"Only 1729 days to go."_

Harper hesitated. It was only an assumption, a guess based on what she had been reading before. Normally she would only discuss that with the patient, but she suspected that the only person who could help Bellamy in the long term was currently stuck miles underground and they had to them first.

She breathed in heavily.

"Based on the symptoms he has had in the past few years, combined with the most recent issues... I am worried he might have at best, swelling, and at worst, a brain tumour, in his frontal lobe."

They all stood gaping at her, concerned, shocked, and unsure what to do.

"We need to get him to Abby and Jackson as soon as possible. These fainting spells are a sign of things to come. They could get worse, and potentially put him into a coma."

The group stared at their two patients, ignoring the third, the crewman, still slumped on the ground in his dirty uniform.

Raven put her palms against her forehead in agony. "You have _GOT_ to be _F^CKING_ kidding me." She tried to keep calm breathing out her nose.

"Guess we have found some new motivation to open that bunker."

Alloy, ever silent, suddenly walked forward and pointed at the crewman. "This is the way to get in to save your folks. One of us has gotta dress in his uniform and get back inta da ship."

Murphy smiled, relived his decision to save the oaf was paying off.

Monty looked surprised then had a gleam in his eye.

"Alloy looks enough like the guard that they will believe its this crewman. Then the only way they will let us _all_ back on the ship to retake it of course, is to play the roles we've had lots of experience in. Alloy needs to take us back in as though he caught us as prisoners."


	33. Chapter 33

Echo and Madi arrived back with the equipment for Harper to attempt her lung re-inflation.

Bellamy's condition had remained consistent and he remained unconscious. His leg had been patched up as much as possible to avoid infection with some river moss wrapped around it. Harper had never been so glad to see that spongy stuff as she was when Madi produced it in addition to the other supplies. In the meantime, Clarke's condition had steadily declined.

"Well, at least I got it right that its a punctured lung." Harper acknowledged to herself, seeking some validation for the fact she was about to perform a complicated procedure having never witnesses it in real life, just in the electronic textbook on the Ark 4 years ago.

She hurriedly began to work on Clarke while Madi, now resigned and slightly calmed down since the supply trip, held Clarkes hand on the other side.

"Ok... first we sterilize... then I have to go between the second and third ribs... here it is... and then I take the syringe, and the tube, and I have to let the air out of the lung..."

She vocalized what she was doing to give her some more confidence. 'At least I know without me, she would have died, and anything I can do now is just icing on the cake.'

She finished, and let the air reinflate the lung.

"It worked."

Slowly, Clarke regained consciousness. "Madi? Is Madi ok?" She said, weakly.

Madi started sobbing again, so relived that Clarke was awake. Clarke smiled and rested hand on her head. "It's ok, my little natblida. It's just a scratch. I've been through worse."

"I could have killed you! You could have died! Bellamy still isn't awake, and everybody is mad at me!"

Next to Clarke on a mat on the ground, Bellamy stirred from his unconscious mind, with his mind flooding with memories of another twelve year old girl named Charlotte so many years ago.

Clarke responded calmly. "Nobody is mad at you Madi. We've all done things we wish we could change. Remember all the stories I told you?"

"Yes..." Madi whimpered.

"Remember all the times I told you I felt that everything was my fault, when I felt like nothing I did was ever good enough, that everything was always bad, and wrong, and I was always fighting to stay on top of the water when I felt like I was drowning?"

There was a sniff of acknowledgement from Madi.

"What did I say to do, when you felt that way?"

"To remember the heart."

"What are you supposed to remember about the heart?"

"You should listen to the heart, not the voices inside your head. To never let failure get to your heart because the heart is the most important part of me."

"That's right. What do you do when you hear those voices in your head trying to tell your heart it did a bad thing?"

"Remember who loved me, who loves me, who will love me, and who I loved, love, and will love. And why."

"That's right. I love you, and it's not your fault what happened today. Now, I think considering this hole in my chest, Harper is going to want me to get some rest. Why don't you go look after Hannah for a bit?"

Harper gently moved Madi away, and finished cleaning up Clarke's chest as best she could before walking away.

"Bellamy?" Clarke asked to nobody in particular.

Her question was followed by a quiet voice. "I'm here Clarke. Always."

With that, Clarke was able to drift off into an exhausted sleep.


	34. Chapter 34

"We can't wait around for them to recover" Monty announced. "There isn't time."

"What exactly do you think we should do Monty, leave them here while we go on our big fun adventure?"

"No, Murphy, I am suggesting we leave them here with Harper, Hannah, and Madi."

Murphy and Emori looked at each other, doubtful.

Echo looked at them, with a look of slight revulsion in her eyes.

"The battlefield has been softened. We are stronger than them and we will take them by surprise. With the right weapons we can take the ship."

"I agree with Echo. We have a good plan to get into the ship without significant resistance. Raven, is there anything you can do on your end to help us overtake the ship?" Monty turned to Raven, hoping she could add to the relatively thin plan.

"Yes. With the mining blaster, I can evaluate their frequency and range and I can reverse engineer this blaster to be more effective on the others. All the blasters are designed with different materials in mind, and considering the fact Elgius hasn't mined in decades, I can assume all the guns are stuck on the same setting. Is that right Alloy?"

Alloy nodded. "No changes since we left Pittsburg." He was always making references to "old Earth" that nobody quite understood.

"Alright. Let's shave your head so you look more similar to the guard and get you into his clothes."

Harper interrupted. "Don't you think they will get a bit suspicious, when they see you returning without me or Hannah?"

"Good point Harper. We need a distraction." Raven stated, already getting to work on the mining blaster.

Alloy again piped up. "A dummy."

"A what?" Murphy asked.

"A dummy. A fake body. We need something the size of da baby and to put it in da baby clothes."

Madi, standing back from the conversation, ran and returned with what appears to be a sandbag and some scraps of fabric. She busily worked at putting a rope in its middle, to make it appear as though it was the size of a childs head.

Harper immediately began pulling off Hannah's clothes and replacing them with various scraps of fabric provided by Madi, while Madi busied herself camoflaging the dummy.

"Not altogether convincing." Murphy said as the head flopped back revealing a canvas face.

"It's just supposed to get us in the door Murphy. From there, we have to fight our way to the control room."

"Madi, we need weapons. Can you bring some to us?"

Madi rushed off, returning in minutes with several rifles and handguns. She handed them out solemnly. Echo shook her head.

"I prefer a sword."

Madi flashed a grin, and returned quickly with two of the swords from her own village. "Nice metalwork, clean lines." Echo stated. Madi looked proud. "Your village must have had an excellent blacksmith."

"Yes... my father." Madi said, quietly.

With that, everybody was ready. Alloy was dressed as the guardsman with the modified weapon. Raven, Murphy, Emori hid their rifles at their backs behind their coats, and Echo her swords in holsters. Monty picked up the dummy, and with a slight smile, placed his gun behind it's back.

Harper looked at them, pleadingly. "Please, stay safe. I wouldn't let you do this, but..."

"It's Bellamy, and he would do it for any of us." Monty announced.

"Yes... exactly. We need Abby and Jackson. Before Bellamy's condition get's worse."

Suddenly, they heard a rustling, and they turned to see Clarke had lifted herself up on her elbows and was looking at them.

"What do you mean, Bellamy's condition gets worse?"

The group looked exasperated. Murphy said "Harper, that is your problem to deal with. The rest of us are getting this show on the road. Onwards, Alloy."

Alloy began tying them up loosely with rope, and Echo walked up to him and looked him square in the face.

"Do not betray us, because if you do, I will cut your head off before you have even had a chance to lift a finger."

Alloy nodded solemnly. "Don't worry... I hate them more than you do."

With that, Monty gave Harper and Hannah goodbye kisses, and the group marched in single file back towards the ship leaving Harper to deal with a recovering and confused Clarke, unconscious Bellamy, a wide eyed Madi, and Hannah who was staring at a leaf she had found on the forest floor.


	35. Chapter 35

NOTE: Ok, apologies for being a bit too busy/tired these days to write. I have very much enjoyed reading some of the other fanfic on this site and realize it may be time to take a second kick at the can here. Thanks for all the support and follows to date. To recap, the last chapter found Alloy, Monty, Raven, Murphy, Echo and Emori along with a fake canvas bag Hannah trudging back to the prisoner ship, with Alloy disguised as one of the guards/security. The whole purpose being they need to save Bellamy because of some sort of brain tumor, and they need to get Abby and Jackson out of the bunker...

Murphy was already regretting that he had agreed to this crazy plan.

"Emori, we could run now" he whispered to her.

"Abandon Bellamy? The only reason we've survived this long?"

"The reason we survived this long is us. We don't need to help Bellamy."

"John, we have a lot of enemies on this planet. We don't need to make any new ones. Let's make ourselves useful and like you with Ontari, sometimes being close to the leader is helpful."

Murphy reluctantly accepted Emori's decision. He knew she was right, but the easy way out just seemed so easy. Plus, the fact it was no secret he had previously been a smart-ass prisoner of the prisoners. He knew he was the easiest target of them all. He swallowed hard and kept walking.

The group stood at the entrance of the ship. It was clear that the guard wasn't the only person to try and make it off the ship. Others had clearly made the decision that outside was better than in and many of them were scattered in the metres surrounding the ship, dead or unconscious. Murphy smiled approvingly.

"I am starting to like Madi more and more."

Alloy turned to him, and hit him over the head with his gun.

Murphy stumbled back - it wasn't a hard hit, but it made a small cut on his face and certainly looked worse than it was. He looked up in a rage, and then saw a look of knowing intelligence on Alloy's face while he winked at the others. He was playing the part of the guard for anybody watching on surveillance from the inside. 'He really is smarter than he looks and sounds' Murphy acknowledged.

Alloy pushed them all into the ship. The signs of the chaos that had passed were everywhere. It was clear that some of the prisoners were recovering, but a significant portion of them appeared to be dead with their bloody vomit leaking down their faces and bodies and sometimes into their excrement. The smell was horrible.

They were safely back on the ship now, and it seemed nobody was coming to get them. Alloy announced loudly "off to the cell blocks for you all" and pushed them down the hall. As soon as he did it, he immediately released their tied up hands.

"I got someding dat I need to do." Alloy announced. The group looked at him in surprise. "I gotta go to my storage locker before dey locked me up. Good luck doing what you need to do here. I will meet you at de place in the forest we came from."

With that, he disappeared. Murphy nodded while the others looked at him with confusion.

"Storage lockers. That's where Alloy's memorabilia from when he was alive on Earth would be kept. I think... I think he is hoping to find photos of his family, that sort of thing. Since you know, they are all long gone now."

Raven didn't have time for this sentimental business.

"Ok, we need to split up and use our skills to the best of our ability. I will go back to the mechanical room and disable their other security systems - Echo and Murphy you'll be by guards. Monty, we need you to go to the control room and try to take control of the ship. Proper access so that we can try to fly this thing to the bunker. Everybody else is with him. Don't waste any time. Kill whoever you must."

With the canvas bag of Hannah being tossed aside by Monthy, he heard a clatter. He looked behind him. The canvas was filled with gobi nuts.

"Everybody take a bunch of these. Just in case."

Suddenly, a red alarm blared loudly.

"That's our cue to split up. Good luck. Don't die." Monty announced.

With that the groups split into their two different directions, concern etched on their faces.


	36. Chapter 36

**Ok! Again, long delay from my last update. I finally re-read my story start to finish and ready to move it forward. When will Season 5 start!?**

 **Comments, feedback, etc, is welcome.**

Echo in front, Raven in the middle, and Murphy behind made for clean and compliant kills. No questions were asked by Echo or Murphy. Every person who was conscious was incapacitated with a swift cut by Echo. Usually just a hand but occasionally an arm. Murphy took up the back with his gun, not at all needed.

Raven chose to ignore what was happening. They had to get their friends out of the bunker, and they had to save Bellamy. She didn't have time to feel bad for the people who had kept them from earth for longer than they had to. When she thought about what it would have meant to them to know Clarke was alive and that they knew the whole time... it tore Raven up. She had to focus on the mission. It was nice to have something productive to do instead of the four years she spent on the Ring wondering how she could tell the group it was impossible, it couldn't be done. Now they had a mission, and not only that, a means. The only thing standing in their way was a few pesky survivors.

Once at security, they stood outside the doorway quietly, unsure of the next step. Murphy smiled his stupid grin and tossed a gobi nut in... followed by one, two three more. There were scraping noises as the people got up from their chairs to investigate. Echo smiled at her chance and threw herself through the door, Murphy close behind her. No gunfire was needed - Echo swiftly took down the three men and the straggler Murphy took out with the butt of the rifle.

"Alright Raven, let's make this happen."

Raven immediately went to work while Murphy and Echo watched the door. About ten minutes into her work, she felt herself begin to sweat unnaturally, and her breathing became labored. She ignored it for a while, then she heard Echo fall to the floor and the panic in Murphy's eye as his breathing became heavier and more harsh.

"Oxygen. They... are cutting our oxygen to this deck." Raven choked out.

"Let's go!" Murphy said, grabbing Raven's arm.

"No. I need to finish this."

Just like six years ago, she could feel herself nearly struggling hard to breathe as the oxygen was slowly vented out of the deck. Murphy looked at her with pleading eyes from his hands and knees as he was breathing more easily on the floor and had managed to get Echo to wake up. "Raven we need to get out of here."

"Done".

Raven hit the last lever, and pulled herself and her bad leg to the ground. Echo had already started to crawl to the lift. "No. The vents." Murphy pointed.

He used the rifle to smash through the vent, and hauled Raven over to put her through it heading down to a lower deck. Echo followed. Murphy took one last gulp of the nearly dead air, and followed suit.

Meanwhile, Monty and his team rushed to the command center, it was deserted.

"No need to command this if you aren't planning on leaving" he said aloud, only to discover when he got to the console that three officers were dead at the helm. "Ugh." He said as he hauled their bodies off the grid.

"Do you know how to fly this thing?" Emori asked.

"No... but the concepts are relatively straight forward, I think. It won't be that different from the Ark."

Monty began to track life signs in the ship. There were three in an air vent - he assumed that was Raven, Echo and Murphy, and a few others around the ship including one in the storage room that was quickly retreating. 'Alloy must have found what he came for.' Monty thought.

"Alright, let me see the fuel cells... Raven has thankfully managed to do what we needed her to do and the security flight protocols are lifted... but what I can't figure out is navigation. We don't have any information about Polis, do we?"

Emori looked quizzically at him. "Well... I remember when we were being interrogated, Sykes kept asking me again and again about Ton DC and Polis. He kept saying "it must be Washington DC and Anapolis" because of the statues I had seen there as a child, but the main building in Polis he didn't remember from when he was on Earth.

Monty looked quizzically at her, then realized what she was trying to say. "Thank you Emori! Ok we need to search the system for Anapolis to see if it will put in that location."

Monty typed furiously into the computer.

It made a quick three toned beep and the computer image zoomed in on what was, presumably, an old map of Anapolis.

Monty typed in further coordinates. Raven, Murphy and Echo came into the room, sweating profusely and breathing heavily. Monty just stated "Raven we need you to help me move this thing. I have found the coordinates and you got the security offline so we can move. Let's get going."

"Wait, aren't we going to get Bellamy, Harper and Clarke?" Murphy asked?

"No time. The fuel cells don't seem to be reacting well with the atmosphere and if we want this thing to get to Polis and be useful, we need to leave now. I am going to close the doors. I think Alloy already left the ship based on the lifesigns. We have to stand guard in case anybody else tries to attack but I expect they are too weak to do so."

"Maybe we should turn of the oxygen on their levels." Murphy grumbled.

"Great idea Murphy. That's actually quite practical. I will reduce oxygen levels on the other levels to make it nearly impossible for them to function, but not to kill them. We may need them later."

Raven announced "60 seconds to lift off. We will not be leaving the atmosphere this time so no need for seats, but be prepared in case there are any bumps in the atmosphere along the way."

Echo and Emori looked at each other, in a way that only two people who had just survived 6 years in space when they didn't want to leave earth at all could understand.

Emori shrugged. Echo moved towards the door to stand guard.

Thirty minutes later, Monty announced - "I think we've found Polis."

On the screen in front of them showing them the ground below... was rubble.


	37. Chapter 37

Madi and Harper looked up and saw the space ship vanish from their sight.

They looked at each other with a panicked expression. Near them, Clarke and Bellamy lay resting and the security guard was still unconscious and bound.

Harper didn't want to let up to this ten year old that she was concerned, but Madi spoke up, unafraid. Ten years old and far too wise.

"Hopefully they didn't get re-taken prisoner. Good thing you and Hannah weren't with them."

"I suspect they just didn't have time to wait for us. Come on, let's get the radio to see if we can find out whats going on."

They hauled out the radio, where their concerns were eased upon hearing Monty and Raven advising each other about landing spaces and mining equipment.

"Monty I can re-modulate the mining equipment but am concerned about the blast. The equipment is meant to blast through rock, not to protect whats on the other side."

"Have you thought about adjusting its frequency to focus on a type of rock and stop short of steel?"

"No, let me see if thats something we can do - do you think we could capture the reverse triangulator to..."

Harper always marveled at their conversations. She didn't understand how Murphy and Raven's brains worked but it was always amazing to watch them work on the same task with a singular focus.

Suddenly, she heard moans, and turned to see Clarke getting up.

"Clarke! I need to remove the..."

"Already done Harper. I've patched myself up too. Whats wrong with Bellamy? Why isn't he awake?"

Clarke's eyes were full of concern. She didn't hide her feelings as well as she used to, Harper noticed.

"I have some theories, Clarke..."

"Does your theory include the reason for all his fainting?"

"Yes... it does. I think he has swelling, damage, or possibly a tumour in his frontal lobe."

Clarke's eyes widened, then she looked at Bellamy with the type of tenderness Harper didn't think she had ever seen in Clarke. Six years really did change her. Clarke went to Bellamy and stroked the side of his quiet face.

"We need to get to my mom."

"I know. That's what we are trying to do right now. Two birds one stone, right?"

Clarke nodded, but not so much at Harper. She was sitting next to Bellamy now, his hands cradling his face and softly stroking it. Harper and Madi looked at each other, their eyes locked in understanding.

Madi walked over to Clarke. "He'll wake up. He will be fine. You didn't both survive and wait six years to lose each other now."

Clarke wiped away a tear. "Oh my little natblida, you know me too well."

Without wasting another minute, Clarke stood at attention to Harper. "What is the plan then? How can we help?"

Harper nodded, realizing Clarke had moved on to business. This was the old Clarke.

"It worked out well, at least from what we can gather of their radio communications. all alive and accounted for. They used the guards outfit on Alloy, who took them as prisoners back to the ship. Once there, they split up to go to security as well as the control room on the ship to launch it. Originally, they were going to come pick us up, but they have headed in the direction of Polis. I am not sure why, but regardless, we should see if we can get there ourselves. We don't want to delay Bellamy's treatment unnecessarily."

Clarke nodded approvingly.

"Alloy seems like a good guy. What do we know about him?"

"Virtually nothing, other than for some reason he hated the people on the ship more than anybody. I think he had some family that he lost, on Earth... back from when he left Earth, anyways. He was kept in deep sleep with Murphy for a long time and we only heard of him on the ship. I did have to monitor them on deep sleep as I was the de facto nurse, and I took the opportunity to review his file, of course... he was imprisoned for treason."

"Treason?!" That got Clarke's attention.

"Yes, treason. Apparently he was a senior government worker at some point, who discovered that the government was keeping the risk of AI quiet. When he discovered what it could do, he tried to alert the newspapers... unfortunately, there was no "free press" and he was found out, tried in secret, and sentenced to death. They decided to keep him for the Elgius Corporation project because of his high intelligence."

"Sounds a lot like the Ark, doesn't it. Unbelievable. He didn't sound very intelligent to me."

"He actually has a mild speech impediment as a result of being tongue tied when he was younger. Based on his records, he could have worked alongside Raven with his background in Physics and Aeronautics. I think the other prisoners would have seen him as a threat, so knowing that he probably played it up a bit when it was just his accent and speech impediment."

"Does anybody else know this?"

"I don't think so. I probably mentioned it to Monty, but we weren't allowed a lot of contact with the others without supervision... for obvious reasons."

"No doubt."

With that, they heard a small moan from Bellamy.

"We need to get him in the Rover and get going to Polis. It's a full day drive and he isn't in great shape."

"Neither are you."

"Exactly. We need to get Bellamy in the Rover along with food and supplies for when they open the bunker. Madi and I have a few food stashes prepared for this occasion, although we can't carry enough to feed everybody we will hit one of our supplies that on the way and load up as much as possible."

"What do we do with him?" Harper pointed towards the still unconscious guard.

"Tie him up to a tree. We don't need the dead weight at this point."

Suddenly, they heard a crunch on the forest floor behind them. Madi, Harper, and Clarke whipped around to see Alloy standing there.

"Great to see you Alloy. Can you help me lift Bellamy into the Rover? Clarke is not physically up for it at this point."

Alloy grunted his agreement and proceeded to assist Harper lifting Bellamy.

"Madi, help pack up camp. I'll make sure the ropes on this guy are nice and tight but just in case... let's leave him a nice glass of water and container of gobi nuts to ensure he doesn't really go anywhere at all."

It took nearly an hour, but once everything was done and the Rover was filled with dried meat and preserves as well as Bellamy's limp body, Clarke looked at Harper. "Can you, Madi and Hannah sit in the back? You should watch Bellamy, and it will be faster for me to drive to Polis. Alloy can sit with me in the front.

Madi smiled, excited for the adventure and to spend some time with Harper who was, as she knew from Clarke's stories, a badass warrier.

Alloy nodded again in agreement.

"Alright, let's head to Polis... or whats left of it."


	38. Chapter 38

"Great, now what?" Murphy asked, annoyed.

"Now, we need to find the bunker entrance. Or wait for Clarke who hopefully knows where it is it." Monty responded, equally annoyed. "Raven, is there any way you can try to locate the entrance using the mining scanners?"

"I'm already on it. We can see the structure of the bunker to the NE about 400 metres."

"Wonderful, let's blast it then!" Emori suggested.

"No, it's not that simple. This ship isn't designed to gracefully mine. It was designed to rip things apart with the mining laser. We have to be extremely careful, and further... we need to be able to communicate with the bunker to ensure that everybody is safe and away from the first three levels. I think that would allow us to do this as safely as possible, anyways."

Monty began fiddling with the communications system, punching in commands and listening in.

"Bunker, do you read? Bunker?"

"In the meantime, Echo, Murphy, Emori, we need you to make the rounds and deal with any survivors. We can move them into the prison cells we stayed in those first few cozy weeks for now as I have changed the codes and they won't be able to escape."

Echo nodded, happy to have a task that might involve some brutality, and turned around. "What if they try to resist us?"

Raven turned slowly.

"Look, I know we hate these guys, but the worst of them are already killed. We don't need to murder them all in revenge. Blood does not need to have blood. Let's put them all in the cells, and if anybody _does_ cause any trouble, incapacitate them and we can deal with them later. Not everybody on this ship was horrible to us - there were some who wanted to help us, remember."

"Just like Mount Weather." Monty said, solemnly, remembering the people who helped protect them only to die horrible deaths.

"Let's start doing better today. Use brutal force only if needed."

Murphy nodded, agreeing with the plan even if he didn't like it. Emori and Echo did as well, and they left the room.

"How long before you have communications up with them Monty?"

"I don't know, now too long. Then it should be easy enough to have everybody move to the bottom levels of the bunker, right?"

"Yeah, 20 minutes tops I am guessing. We will have Abby out in no time!"

 **Oh, so naive!**


	39. Chapter 39

**Ok so to refresh... the mining equipment is likely to cause damage to the upper levels of the bunkers, where the grounders are still fighting it out. The team above ground is only vaguely aware of the issues that have taken place in the past 6 years, since they were not there when Clarke and Octavia spoke over the radio. They have arrived on site, with Clarke, Harper, Alloy Hannah, Madi and Bellamy on their way in the rover.**

Monty and Raven were clearly excited and in "the zone" as Murphy called it. They were flipping dials, rushing around, and trying to connect with the bunker over the radio. That was made to be Murphy's job since it "was something he could handle" according to Raven.

"Octavia, Heda, do you read? Bunker, do you read? This is Murphy and we are trying to goddamn rescue you so we would appreciate a response if you could."

Murphy tried again and again, with no luck. "Is it possible this thing is broken?" he asked, clearly annoyed at the dwindling importance of his task.

"It's unlikely it's broken. Have you been able to connect with Clarke either?"

Murphy once again rolled his eyes, and started again. "Clarke or Harper, do you read? For that matter, anybody? If _anybody_ is listening, do you read?"

"John Murphy?" Jaha's voice broke through the static.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me. Jaha you couldn't die if you stuck your own head in a furnace."

"John, we don't have time. The bunker's backup generator is failing. We need to get out in the next 16 hours we will run out of air completely."

Everybody looked at each other with wide eyes, suddenly aware of the impending countdown. Monty grabbed the radio.

"We need you to get everybody into the lower levels of the bunker. We don't think we can prevent damage using this equipment. We aren't familiar enough with it and the laser blasts could reach the inside of the bunker."

The static returned.

"Jaha? Jaha? Shit. SHIT."

"Did their radio go out? Did they hear us?"

"How would I know! God damn it now we are going to be blasting into the bunker and for all we know they could all be standing at the goddamn door at the top waiting to get out."

"We have to hope that they heard us then. Or we have to figure out in the next few hours how to get this equipment to wokr in our favour instead of against us. See if you can get Clarke back on the radio."

The rover was going as fast as it reasonable could considering the charred terrain as it headed towards Polis. They were still several hours away.

"Can somebody get the radio out and try to make contact with the bunker or the ship?" Clarke asked.

"I have no idea how to use the radio Clarke and we need you to drive."

Alloy suddenly huffed with apparent annoyance and grabbed the black casing, opening it up.

"This is Alloy. Do you read?"

Clarke and Harper gave each other a quick look, even more grateful to have Alloy on their team.

"Clarke? Is Clarke with you?"

"Yes. She is here. Whadya want?"

"Clarke, we have a serious issue. We can't figure out how to target the mining equipment properly, and apparnetly the bunkers back up generator just went and we only have 16 hours to clear everything. We need everybody to get into the bottom of the bunker if that's going to work without killing everybody, but their radio is out."

"That's bad." Clarke stated, trying to focus on the road.

"The technology on this machine even though I worked on the space components, are still new to Monty and I. With enough time we could figure it out but... "

"Raven, we will figure it out. We have to figure it out. Bellamy... he needs a proper doctor. I need to get in there to see my Mom."

"I know Clarke, I just... I don't know if there is enough time... " Raven trailed off, the concern and anxiety in her voice evident.

"I can help." Alloy said. "What?" Raven asked, clearly surprised.

"Listen carefully Raven. You need to do exactly what I say. First, you need to take a panoramic shot of the rubble and the area surrounding it. That includes an analysis of the type of rock and debris we are dealing with. Are you are the geologic review control panel? Ok, from there..."

Alloy's entire demeanor had changed. He was no longer a simpleton but a calculated mind, navigating Raven through the processes.

"The changes will help, but they won't do it all. They will minimize the damage but it will require more clean up and if our time to get your people out and safe is tight, we will need to work fast and remove the remaining debris with sweeper technology."

"Ok, I'm following. Will you be here soon?" Raven pleaded, feeling out of her element but not wanting to admit it.

Clarke took in her surroundings. "Two hours to go."

"Raven, start clearing the big pieces of the blast on the top as discussed. When we get there I will join you in the control centre and we can work together to finish the job. Alloy out."

Clarke looked at him, a bit confused.

"Why are you working so hard to help us?"

"I'm not helping you... I'm helping her. Raven... is special."

Harper and Clarke raised their eyebrows at each other.

"Yes, she definitely is."


	40. Chapter 40

**Ok, so now the countdown is on to free the survivors. Will they do it on time? (spoiler alert - obviously - this is a tv show not real life- but people may die in the process).**

They arrived in the rover and got as close to the Elgius ship as possible. Monty spotted them and opened the ships doors where Echo greeted them.

"Harper, you and Hannah stay in the rover with Bellamy and Madi. Alloy and I will join them on the ship."

"What! That's not fair, I want to stay with you." Madi protested.

Clarke hesitated. Alloy said "fine, let's go" and the decision was made.

Harper smiled patiently at Clarke as a knowing parent, and checked on Bellamy in the rover.

"Ok, but don't wander off Madi. We have a lot of work to do- "

"- I know, we need to save our people! I am really hoping my cousin is in there, it would be so great to see somebody... from before"

"Alright focus. Let's go. Task at hand."

Alloy and Echo rushed ahead with Madi easily keeping up and Clarke struggling from her recent injuries. Echo wrapped an arm under her shoulders to help her.

"Uhhh... thanks Echo."

"No problem Clarke. Also, I... I am sorry for not believing you would live. Wanheda... it makes sense you would make it. Thank you for saving us all."

"Echo, I..."

"Clarke, I am happy for Bellamy. His grief was all encompassing. I am just glad the great Wanheda lived."

With that, Clarke nodded slowly, appreciating that Echo clearly harboured her no ill will when it came to Bellamy, and truly appreciating her as an ally as her lungs were not what they were.

They arrived to the fury in the command centre, where Alloy, with a surprising amount of authority, walked up and sat in a chair at command and begin reviewing the systems.

"Good work, it looks like you are ready to start the process. This is excellent considering you have no experience with mining. It looks like, with the modifications and appropriate sweeping we should be done in... 14 hours."

"We only have 12 hours left!" Monty cried out.

"Then we must do it in 12." Alloy said simply, and with that, he aimed his blaster and instructed Raven to do the same from the left.

"On my count. We do 10 shots each to clear the rubble. Then the others must go out and aim the sweepers to remove the rubble from the entrance. They have one hour to clear. Then we take 10 more shots and they clear that. It is the fastest and safest way. The rest of you all head to the mining dock and take out a sweeper. We have five.

"There are only four of us other than Raven and you." Murphy pointed out.

"Not true. There is the young girl. She can use one too."

Madi's eyes shone with excitement. Clarke's eyes narrowed at the back of Alloy's thick head, angry at his suggestion.

"No time Clarke. Let's go." Monty announced, dragging her arm while Madi happily ran ahead to catch up with Echo.

"The equipment is easy enough to use. It's sort of like a rover with mechanisms to remove smaller rubble on the front and the ability to pile it in the back and dump it elsewhere. Madi, have you driven the rover before?"

"Yes! A few times."

"Then you'll be ahead of Echo and Emori who haven't. Everybody has to move quickly so that we can get the rubble removed in time.

With only two hours to go, the team had made significant progress, but not enough. They radio'd into the comms system.

"How much longer is this going to take?"

"Three hours, unless we increase our blasting."

"That seems like a better option than everybody suffocating to death."

"I agree, but it's a risk if they are all at the front eager to get out."

"How much of a risk are we talking? Will the blasts kill everybody?"

"No, likely just the people in the direct line of fire and surrounding it."

"Then we have to go faster. Increase the blasting. Better some survivors than none."

Alloy nodded grimly at Raven who nodded assent to Clarke's plan change.

"Let's do this." Raven said, concentrating ahead at the rocks still to be moved.\

Inside the bunker, chaos reigned.

People heard the blasting above, and starting to get excited. That had the effect of, unsurprisingly, lowering their oxygen levels. What had been estimated to be 16 hours had turned into an estimate of only 14 hours quickly after blasts began and was steadily declining. As all systems had been turned off and rerouted to oxygen, everybody was hot and sweaty in the near dark with only emergency lighting in key rooms.

"What are we going to do?" Octavia demanded, happy to at least be on the lower level of the bunker where they were likely safer.

"Well... I have an idea." Kane said, grimly. "Jaha, do we still have access to those gas cannisters?"

"Yes."

"Let's use them on the grounders. That way they will stop using the oxygen we do have from their own excitement. We need to send somebody up to the upper decks to set them off."

"I'll do it." Octavia announced. "It's time I accept my fate as a failed Heda. I would rather they killed me but survived."

Jaha nodded, grimly. "I know the feeling. I remember when I stayed behind on the go-sci ring."

"Exactly. These are my people, my responsibility."

"I'll get the cannisters." Jaha said, softly.

The team began to talk about other possible ways to conserve energy, when Octavia heard the noise above them roar.

"What the - where is Jaha?!"

"Kill Skaikru! Kill Skaikru!" The chants above rang out, while it was clear a serious commotion was taking place ont eh upper decks, they couldn't review security footage which had been cut to save power.

Suddenly... soft thuds from above, and silence.

"He did it." Octavia whispered. "He did it so I didn't have to."


	41. Chapter 41

Shortly after the silence fell above, the noise began again.

This time, however, it was the sound of screeching metal and concrete, and suddenly, dust and particles filled their lungs as the exhaust fans were not on, and that combined with the lack of oxygen in the bunker made them fall to their knees, until slowly, all those remaining in the bunker passed out. Octavia, with her last ounce of strength, unlocked the door to the bottom levels of the bunker before she too passed out from the bad air quality.

A few sputtering coughs could be heard but for the most part... an eery silence as the last few crashes and crumbles of the bunker fell to the outside.

"We've hit them! We are in the bunker!" Raven exclaimed, excited and apprehensive.

The sweepers outside began working as quickly as possible to remove the rubble, but it didn't feel fast enough. They only had maybe an hour left before the 16 hour deadline, and with the dust that was surely venting through the air systems, it may not be good enough.

"I've found a way in!" an excited Madi yelled into the comms system. "It's not big but it looks stable!"

The sweeping team assembled around Madi's entry point, a hole in the steel and concrete approximately 2 meters wide and long that appeared to enter into the main chamber.

"We need something to lift them out, some sort of lift or pulley system." Monty announced.

Clarke nodded, knowing she had some equipment in the rover. She ran back as fast as she could considering her injury to the where she saw Harper checking Bellamy's pulse. Harper only had to look at Clarke briefly for Clarke to understand.

"Is he getting worse?"

"Yes. His pulse is erratic and at times weak. His pupils are dilated. I am thinking he may have swelling in the brain as a result of the avalanche."

Clarke nodded, taking his hand quickly.

"We are almost there Bellamy. We almost have Octavia and my mom and Kane and everybody back. You just have to hold on a little longer."

With that, Clarke hauled out the spare tire wheelbase and pulled that and some rope from the back. At the last minute, she looked and saw the hammocks she and Madi had been working on the summer before, and grabbed those too.

"I'll be back for you."

With that, Clarke turned and headed back, as quickly as she dared, over the rubble to the group who was collectively yelling into the bunker... hearing only silence.

They all looked at each other nervously, as Raven and Alloy came towards them as well with some additional rope with a few strange looped sections as well as portable oxygen tanks.

"Climbing gear." Alloy said simply, putting on one and connecting it up, while handing the other to Murphy.

"What exactly do you want me to do with this?" Murphy asked.

"Put on the harness. We connect the rope to this secure rock and belay down."

"Huh. Sounds a lot smarter than the system I used before where I almost died falling down a rockface."

Alloy just looked at him. Raven looked at him sharply "hurry up Murphy - just trust Alloy. He's gotten us this far, hasn't he?"

Murphy heaved a big sigh and him and Emori began suiting him up as Alloy was. In the meantime, Raven, Clarke and Madi were working on a pulley system to get in and out of the bunker.

In the rush to get it all done, Madi looked at Clarke cautiously. "Are you worried we can't hear anybody? What if we are too late?"

Clarke continued to work on the rope system, pulling it tight and looping it into the hammocks.

"We can't be too late. We just can't."

Within minutes, although it felt like hours, they were ready to go and Alloy and Murphy descended into the darkness with oxygen tanks to breathe into, if necessary.

"Holy shit."

Murphy looked around and saw the scarred, bloody walls of the bunker first. That's before his headlamp shone on the screwed up face of a member of the ice nation... dead, and hung on the wall. He gulped and averted his eyes, trying to stop himself from dry heaving.

"Monsters." Was all Alloy said, horrified. "Who are these people you want to save?"

Suddenly, they were on the ground of the main floor. Murphy looked around, trying to see anybody familiar, when he saw him. Jaha. Cut and sliced and diced by what appeared to be many knives... Murphy went over to him. He may not like the guy, but it was comforting to see that at least he had made it this long and that maybe... maybe the others were here.

He felt a weak pulse and put the oxygen mask over his face. Suddenly, with a heave, Jaha began to breath and choke out the dust.

"Where is everybody Jaha? Everybody here... looks dead."

"John." Jaha said, a faint smile of relief. "You made it."

"Jaha, yes, where is everybody? Is everybody dead?"

"The grounders... they revolted in the fifth year. We had to keep them seperate from the rest of us... they were knocked out with gas to conserve oxygen. They... they should have lived."

Murphy poked at one nearby holding a crude looking implement. He didn't move. He kicked him, harder. Still nothing. He felt for his pulse.

"He's dead Jaha."

"The oxygen... it must have deteriorated more quickly on the upper levels... "

"Is there anybody else here? Don't tell me we spent all this time just trying to save your ass."

Jaha half smiled, weak and still suffering from oxygen deprivation. "Lower levels. Find them. On the lower levels. Down that hall to the left."

"Yeah, I remember, I remember when it became pretty clear we weren't going to get on the list to stay and we were kicked out of our quarters. Ok, Alloy, let's put Jaha in the sling and send him up."

Alloy grunted, and they heaved him onto the hammock, pulling twice to signal a pull up, and ran down the hall to the lower levels.

When he got to the door, Murphy hesitated, unsure what he would see and not sure he wanted to see it but hoping that Jaha was right, that the air had deteriorated on the higher levels more quickly and seriously. It also occurred to him all those years living in oxygen deprived space might have made Skaikru slightly more resilient than the grounders who had for the most part lived in wonderful oxygen.

When Alloy wrenched open the door, a roughed up looking girl fell right into his arms. It took him a moment before he realized who it was.

"Octavia!" he shouted, and put the oxygen mask to her face. Her eyes slowly opened.

"Murphy... I... never... thought I would be so glad to see you."

Murphy smiled, appreciating the joke. "Let's get you out of here!" She shook her head.

"No. The children first. Second door on the left."

Murphy ran to the orphaned children quarters and thankfully, most of them were passed out, not suffering severe oxygen deprivation as the air slowly filtered in. With a bit of oxygen they were all able to wake up and walk out, with Murphy directing Alloy and Octavia to get them into the hammocks immediately. Then Murphy proceeded to wake Indra, and Gaia, and Miller and as they sat slowly recovering as the oxygen slowly filtered in, he looked around, amazed at how rough everybody looked. For a change, Murphy, who had always had his fair share of battles, looked healthy and clean compared to the others. He realized then how lucky they had been to escape praimfaya in the Ring and even, the Elgius ship even if he was mostly unconscious for that time.

When he reached Medbay, he rushed in to find Jackson who had appeared to be waking up on his own from the oxygen deprivation. He looked at Murphy and just pointed in the direction of the closet.

"Help her." he asked.

Murphy looked at him a bit strangely, then walked to the closet as Jackson nodded. He pulled open the door and on the ground were Abby, Kane, and a little girl... completely passed out.

Murphy worked on the little girl first, always sensitive about children and thinking about his own that was lost, wistfully. The girl woke up. "Who are you?" She asked. "I'm not allowed to be seen by strangers." Murphy moved the mask to Abby's face, feeling a slight pulse in her neck.

"Everybody calls me Murphy."

"Murphy, the medicine man?"

"What?"

"My mom... she said... you are like Robin Hood, taking medicine to those who need it. That your Dad was the same. Brave."

Murphy looked at her, and his eyes glistened and he heard Abby cough. He immediately turned the oxygen mask onto Kane as he saw Abby get up groggily and hug the little girl.

"Mom, it's Murphy! Like the story!"

Murphy looked at Abby, stunned, and then at Kane whose eyes were slowly opening up and coughing an puttering followed.

"Well, I don't think anybody mentioned this little development to Clarke, did they?" He asked, smiling as they came to and saw him clearly.

Abby just took his shoulders and hugged him. Taken aback at first, he softened. He always liked Abby. Kane grabbed his shoulder.

"Keep going. The others need help. We can help everybody here now."

Murphy nodded, heading out, then turned. "Abby, I think Bellamy needs to see you. I'm not sure whats going on but... he seems sick. Clarke will probably want you to help him in here."

Abby nodded, her eyes already focused on the work as she pulled herself up using the cabinet behind her. Kane did the same, pulling the little girl up.

"Do you want to see the sky?" Kane asked her, and she looked frightened.

"It's ok now. Nobody will hurt you. It's ok."

With that, Kane kissed Abby, gave Jackson a reassuring hug, and started his way out of the bunker to the earth above.


	42. Chapter 42

**The bunker is open! The lower levels seem to have been saved for the most part, but can they save Bellamy?**

They tirelessly pulled people up, one after another, but Clarke was getting anxious until she saw Kane bringing up a little girl.

"Kane!" She breathed loudly, pulling him up and into a hug with affection she didn't realize was possible for the man who only seven years previously had been involved in floating her father for treason and tried to do the same to her mother. But as she knew, people change. He had a little girl with her, and Kane looked between the two of them, pensively. The little girl darkened at the light, her pupils dilating until she simply closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands. It was too bright in the full sun for her. She had obviously been born underground.

"We don't have any time to waste. Is my mom ok down there and able to assess Bellamy? We think he has swelling of the brain, and a possibly brain tumour based on the symptoms they reported."

Kane nodded, his mind back on business instead of the happy reunion. "Yes, let's put him down in the hammock. I can carry him with the help of another. Somebody needs to look after her..." Kane hadn't found the words yet, wasn't sure if he was the one to share.

"I'll do it!" Madi announced, long since delegated to the side once enough adults had been pulled to the surface. "Ill look after her. I can show her the Rover and stay there while you take Bellamy down."

"Great idea. Harper can stay with Hannah at the Rover as well. Let's go."

With that, after dropping Vera and Madi with Harper and Hannah, they fashioned a gurney for Bellamy and pulled him to the makeshift entrance, putting him in the hammock and sending him down after Clarke.

Clarke hopped out of the hammock, readying it for the next person, when she felt a powerful stare behind her. She breathed in and turned around.

"Octavia. I..." Octavia, who had been tending to a grounder that appeared to have survived the poor air quality of the upper levels, stood up and grasped her arm and held it firm. "Clarke. It is... it is good to see you."

"Bellamy, he..." Octavia looked behind her and saw him being lowered down.  
"What's going on?" she demanded, brushing Clarke aside and going to see him, still unconscious.

"Brain swelling for sure. We think possibly... possibly a brain tumor. We are here to see my mom." Kane was following down in the other hammock and jumped out, beginning to lift Bellamy out of his own. Octavia and Clarke jumped in to help as did another grounder. "We should hurry." Clarke stated, simply.

They rushed him off to Abby and Jackson, where Abby had already prepped the equipment for assessment. She and Jackson began fervently working while Clarke and Octavia looked on.

"Not exactly the reunion I was expecting Clarke."

"I know. I didn't know about it either, until after a rockledge fell on us..." Octavia looked at her, expecting more. "... its a long story. Harper had been concerned about some of his symptoms for a few years, but didn't have any way to operate on the Ring. It didn't seem too serious and only affected certain behaviors... but now he has been unconscious for over 12 hours. They will need to get the swelling down first, before they can operate on a tumor if thats what it is."

Octavia nodded, grimly. She stepped forward to Abby and Jackson.

"You'll save his life. If you don't you'll have to answer for your crimes. Don't think I don't know what you've both hidden from me for years. I have to go work to save the rest of my people but when I get back, I expect him to be recovering. If he isn't... well... you know what I have to do."

With that cold and emotionless threat, she turned and left the room, nodding at Clarke.

"What crimes? What did you hide?" Clarke demanded.

"Not now Clarke. We have to assess Bellamy. Can you go and treat the oxygen deprived as best you can? Standing here won't help Bellamy, or us."

Clarke looked at them hesitantly as they began to poke and prod him.

"Fine." She said, but she went up to Bellamy, grabbed his hand, and squeezed. "I'll be back."

With that, she grabbed a medical kit and walked out to find other survivors.


	43. Chapter 43

**Alright, another chapter! Will they be able to save Bellamy? Who knows... but probably, because he is a pretty central character and I cannot even fathom the hate mail I would get for killing him. But read on! Finally, please read the other story I am working on, "Rude Awakening" - I actually think I stay a bit more true to character in that one, and it has a slow Maven (Ruprhy?) build up which this one is lacking but I so badly want to see next season.**

Finally, they had hauled the last survivor out of the bunker other than Bellamy, Abby and Jackson. Octavia had gone up somewhat reluctantly. She felt she had failed as a leader, but the majority of whom disagreed with her had just died from lack of oxygen, and those that remained reluctantly acknowledged her as the leader. There were 793 left.

"We lost almost 50% of our population." She said stoically to Indra and Gaia.

"Yes, but we saved many Octavia. Those who were fighting on the upper levels made the choice, and we made a choice. We managed to survive. If not for your brother, we might not have been saved at all. They know this. Now act like it."

Octavia swallowed her pride and bruised ego, and hauled herself up a piece of rubble.

"We have made it back to the ground. This is where the hard work begins. This is where we must begin to rebuild our lives instead of simply surviving." She then translated in Trideslang before shoting "WONKRU"

"WONKRU" They shouted back, jubilant about being back on the ground, even seeing the mess that it was.

Octavia went back to Indra who was waiting. "Assign out tasks. Water, food, and shelter. We should be able to clear the rubble from some of the buildings that survived the wave. I am going to see my brother."

With that, she grabbed the makeshift hammock, and headed back into the darkness.

Clarke met her at the door of the medbay that was locked.

"They won't let us in."

"Like hell they won't let ME in. I am Heda."

Octavia pulled out a key, and opened the door. "A little less dramatic than a sword, but really, far more practical just to keep the master key."

The door swung open.

Bellamy was lying there, completely unconscious. Abby and Jackson were covered in blood and deep in concentration talking to each other in low murmurs, working like a team who had been working together, just like this, for years.

"Don't speak." Clarke advised Octavia quietly. "They are working on the brain right now. They can't be distracted."

Octavia nodded, mute. She wouldn't risk that to Bellamy.

Suddenly, they heard a soft thud and then clink in a metal tray.

"That's the best we can do Jackson. We have to hope it works and that he hasn't suffered any serious damage. We are lucky it wasn't cancerous. Put him back together."

Jackson began working to put his skull and scalp back on his head as Abby sighed heavily.

Octavia finally spoke up.

"Well? Did you save him?"

Abby looked up, surprised to see them there. "We think so. It was a malignant tumor. It had grown on a place in the brain that affects smell and, occasionally, memory. We won't know the results until he wakes up but the good news is that we were able to eliminate the cause of the swelling, so he will survive. But..."

"But what, Mom?"

"But... we don't know what type of life that might be. He might be permanently damaged from this, but the only alternative was allowing him to die. It was the only choice."

Clarke's eyes welled up at those words. She had been keeping herself together, contained, in control, just like the old Clarke did. But this broke her down, broke her back to the Clarke of the past six years who wanted nothing but her own heart back, and to stop listening so much to her head. She felt her feelings swell up inside her, choking her, until she gasped out a sob and collapsed, breathing heavily and sobbing into her knees on the floor.

Octavia looked at her, confused... then with understanding. She knew how she felt. Right now, Octavia wasn't feeling anything. If being stuck underground had taught her anything in over 6 years, it was that you have to be sure of the outcome before you promise anything, and best not to promise at all. They wouldn't know until they knew but this was a better alternative than nothing.

"Abby and Jackson, you are hereby pardoned of your crimes of hiding the illegal daughter of Abby and Kane as a result of your direct service to Heda." She announced, feeling very charitable and somewhat relived to have found a way to pardon them. Abby and Jackson were stunned, but were not surprised that Octavia had discovered their secret in the recent hours. Jackson looked very relieved.

"What?" Clarke asked, confused.

"Shit." Octavia said, lamely, after what she felt was a wonderful speech.

"Clarke, why don't we go down the hall and talk. Jackson, you can watch Bellamy and I'll be back in thirty minutes."

"Yes maam."

Abby walked over to Clarke's collapsed and confused figure, and hauled her up with both arms, putting an arm around her waist, and walking out the door.

"Octavia, I..."

"Save it Jackson. I would have done the same thing in your situation, you know that. I'm just relieved I didn't find out in time to need to make a decision."

He swallowed hard, and nodded.

"Can I sit next to him?"

"Yes, of course. But he probably won't wake up for at least a few hours, and when he does wake up we will need to keep him calm. He will be very confused."

"I understand."

"No... you don't. That means that it might be best if... it might be best if you aren't here. He hasn't seen you in six years, and he might get too excited or panic or think its a dream."

"Oh... I see."

"Yes, so if you leave, I will notify you immediately when he does wake up. I just want to ensure he doesn't do so, and cause further damage."

"Alright Jackson. I will. I'll be back in a few hours but otherwise just come out of this hole yourself and get me."

"Of course."

"And Jackson?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for being a human being and saving the baby as well as Abby and Kane. It shows the type of person you are. They type of person I wish I still was."

"You still are you, Octavia. You just had to make a lot of hard choices over the last six years. Don't dwell on the thing you can't change. You managed to keep so many of us alive when all the odds were against us. We can't fault you for that, and nobody does."

"Thanks."

"Anytime. And thank you, for the pardon." He grinned.

"Yeah, I didn't want to have Miller on my bad side anyways."

With a small smile, she left the room, ready to get back up above ground to lead her people.


	44. Chapter 44

**So, Bellamy... is he in the clear now after the brain surgery? What will the reunion look like? What will he remember? I was motivated to do this by the fact we now have to wait until APRIL (!?) for the 100 Season 5? argh!**

The first thing that came back was his sight. His eyes began to detect light, and his conscious mind began to pull him out of his deep sleep and force him to open his eyelids, slowly, wincing at the squint he could accomplish in the moment. Then, sound came back. His ears began to detect slight noises, small clanks of metal on metal, somebody moving around near him. Then, suddenly and without warning, his body and its nerves percolated to the surface and he let out a soft groan as the pain hit him, as if his head had been hit with batons. The person came over to him swiftly.

"Bellamy. Can you hear me? Bellamy, can you open your eyes?"

Slowly, still squinting, Bellamy opened his eyes more and peered into the eyes of one of the doctors from the Ark.

His voice came slowly, hoarse. "Octavia? Where is she? Jaha... did I kill him?"

Jackson knew immediately that their worst fears had come true. Memory loss.

"Bellamy... no, you didn't kill Jaha. I can get Octavia for you."

"She wasn't in the drop ship? She didn't get sent to earth?"

"Octavia is fine. She is alive and healthy. But you have suffered a serious brain surgery to remove a tumor and eliminate swelling that could have killed you. You have some memory loss as a result of the surgery. I can bring your sister to you, but it appears you may not remember the past seven years very well. A lot has happened in that time, but for now you need to rest. Your sister will be here in an hour if I call for her now on the radio. Are you in significant pain or are you able to sleep?"

Bellamy's head swirled with confusion and exhaustion. He felt fatigued, and wanted to see his sister, but if this doctor said she could be here in an hour, that would be good enough for him. His muscles relaxed.

"Yes, just bring me Octavia. I can sleep for now. I want to make sure she is ok."

Jackson nodded, grabbing the radio and walking away with it, out of Bellamy's earshot. He heard a few things "loss of memory" "doesn't remember earth" but before he could process that information, his exhaustion took him to a dreamless sleep.

Jackson flagged Abby down from the hallway where her and Clarke were still processing the last six years of their lives together. Clarke could barely understand it. A sister. A brother who did not survive. A sibling, something she never thought she would have. Her mom and Jackson hiding the baby from everybody, including Kane. It was hard to believe what has passed in six years. Difficult to process, in addition to the fact Bellamy had just had a brain surgery. More had happened to her in the days since the prisoners landed than had happened to her in her whole life time. At least, that is how it felt to her.

Abby on the other hand, saw it completely differently. Clarke was already so grown up after she was put in solitary, but she had become a mother in the past six years. She had taken on a new role, learned a new kind of love. Abby knew how special that was. She knew how her heart pulled for Clarke while in the bunker and how even now was pulling to Vera. That kind of love that never goes away, never fades, never becomes a memory. It's a part of you. Plus, she could see how things had changed for Clarke and Bellamy. It was obvious that Clarke had now acknowledged those feelings she was too afraid to admit all those years ago. How a friendship could form between two strong willed people, to become one of friendship and love, to something more deep, was something she was very familiar with. She saw so much of Marcus and herself in her and Bellamy. Now, however, wasn't the time. It was clear that there was an anxiety behind Clarke's eyes that showed what she was really worried about... how everybody she loved in a way that exposed her vulnerability died.

Abby hoped that wasn't the case with Bellamy. There is only so much a person can take. So when Jackson flagged them down, she knew it was time to find out how bad it was.

Out of earshot from the still sleeping Bellamy, Jackson updated them on the situation.

"He woke up and spoke with me for only a few minutes. His speech was normal, his eyes were focused, and his hearing was fine. Those are all good signs. He responded to stimulus. In the long term, physically, he should be fine."

"You know I am concerned about his memory Jackson. Out with it." Abby said, glancing at Clarke's pale eyes.

"Yes. He seems to think he is still on the Ark..."

"That's not that unusual, considering when the swelling likely began" Abby said.

"No... its that he thinks he is on the Ark before the dropship went down. He appears to think that he has awoken on the Ark, right after he shot Chancellor Jaha. He asked to see Octavia. I radio'd her and told her the situation, and she understands. I asked her to... try and tone down the grounder look for when she sees him. She agreed and is on her way here now."

Clarke looked at him with wide eyes, only just understanding the implication for her.

"He doesn't remember... anything from when he came to earth the first time. Or anybody."

"No... well he didn't remember me at all. Just knew I was a doctor on the Ark. I haven't had a chance to run other memory tests. It's possible it will come back."

Abby nodded, slowly. "But, its possible that it won't. We can work to try and allow him the opportunity to remember things... but he has to spend the next few days recovering and we will need to monitor progress. Thankfully we can use Octavia and work with his memory slowly with her."

Clarke looked hard at Abby and Jackson, then at Bellamy her eyes wet with unshed tears. She shook her head, and nodded at Abby and Jackson curtly.

"Well, there is no need for me to be here now. I am going up to find Madi. I'll let the others know that he survived the surgery and he has to be monitored, and that he can't have visitors unless you or Jackson specifically request it. Mom, maybe you should come up with me so I can meet my ... my sister. It would be nice to meet her with you there, and I would like you to meet Madi."

Abby nodded, grabbing a medical bag. "I can also check on everybody above ground. In case there are any medical issues. Jackson, are you ok here for now? I can send Miller down... "

"Of course. I'll see the ground soon and Octavia will be here soon. I'll be fine. Can you be back in eight hours to switch shifts?"

"Yes, let's do that. Thanks Jackson."

Clarke was already heading to the door when she heard a noise from Bellamy. "Octavia?"

Clarke squeezed her eyes shut, and walked into the hallway back to the surface.


	45. Chapter 45

**Ok, so I thought Season 5 would feed me enough that I wouldn't need this, that the writers could do a better job... I am not so sure I feel that way anymore! I mean they have a whole team that should be working to do a good job writing... anyway, I would like to thank Gabus1990 for the review that encouraged me to continue the story.**

 **LAST TIME ON THE 100: They managed to get into the bunker and save those that they could, including the illegal daughter of Kane and Abby... but Bellamy's brain operation has caused him to lose his memory. He has awoken and the last thing he can remember is shooting Jaha up on the ark. The "ultimate reboot" some might say!**

Bellamy's physical recovery was steady. He was feeling stronger, better, more like himself. More like himself with a much bulkier frame anyways. He also had a lot of scars where he didn't remember getting hurt. But much like his body, there was a lot that happened to him that he didn't remember.

What he found most unusual was the privileged, those who he knew to be Monty and the Griffin girl, seemed to have an interest in his well being. He couldn't really understand that. They wouldn't have known him at all - even in his wildest dreams, would the privileged and the people like him every have intermingled? It didn't really add up.

Then there was his sister. The last time he saw her was in lock up on visiting day - she was timid then, unsure about how to deal with all the new people that she had to deal with in lockup. Some guy John had made fun of her, and she was clearly hurt. But this... this Octavia, was so different. So strong, so sure. She spoke to Dr. Griffin and Jaha and Kane like she was doing them a favour. Like she was in charge. She was in charge... he could tell, but she hadn't told him that. Bellamy had the sense that they weren't being completely truthful with him, afraid he might not be able to cope.

He kept looking for somebody. Somebody who wasn't there, but it was instinctual. Whenever somebody said something to him that he didn't believe, he turned his head to look and... whatever, and whoever it was that he was looking for, it wasn't there.

A young girl he never met before, Madi, had taken to visiting him every day. She seemed so eager to know him, always asking about the ark, telling him about the ground. She spoke of greenery and animals and birds and... things he remembered in what felt like a hazy dream. He wasn't sure why she cared, maybe she wanted to be a doctor like Dr. Griffin some day... but he appreciated the company. At least she didn't make it seem like he had missed out on a lifetime, even though he knew that he had. Everybody else acted like it. Madi kept talking about this person, Clarke, who sounded like her mother. She was part of all the stories, all the fun, all the bad times that they had experienced in recent years during "praimfaya" whatever that was. Sometimes he would hear a faint "Madi, its time to go" from the door and Madi would stand up, look at him with eyes that knew more about him than he did, and walk out. Never once did this Clarke person come to visit, although he gathered he knew her since people kept mentioning her name and his together. Octavia had slipped up a few times while visiting - "you and Clarke..." at one point he got worried that this Madi was his child, but knew that couldn't be true since she was about 12 or 13. So what was the connection everybody was tiptoeing around?

After a few weeks, Dr. Griffin gave him the "all clear" physically. Bellamy was excited but nervous to be going to "Earth"... while being on it. When he was finally pulled to the surface, it wasn't what he was expecting. It was... dusty and beige. He pictured something different, something green. Something that tugged on his mind, like a memory that was stuck on the other side of a wall and he could only make out faint murmurs. Still he was happy to be out of the prison that the med bay had become. He was excited to experience the world. Madi had told him enough of it to be excited. This wasn't all that was out there. There was an eden. He knew that once he got there, he would feel truly alive again.

He was walking around with Jackson for supervision when he saw a woman with short blonde hair staring at him intensely. When she saw he noticed, she turned away quickly, a pink streak evident in her hair.

"I don't remember that." he said, vaguely.

"What don't you remember?" Jackson asked.

"The pink. It... it wasn't always there."

Jackson looked confused, then looking at Clarke he nodded slowly. "You're right.. Thats new. Do you remmeber anything else?"

"No... I don't even know why I remember that."

Nodding nonchallantly, Jackson veered him in another direction. "Let's keep walking. Maybe something else will jog your memory."

Three hours later, Bellamy was exhausted and all he could report that he "might" remember the tower in Polis. He wasn't sure though. He might have just been saying that to get Jackson to relent.

"Let's try again tomorrow. Rest is key right now."

"Sure." Bellamy said, not believing him. "What are the chances after everything that happened all I can remember is weird pink hair is new. That hardly seems important."

 **I hope to be back again soon! Reviews welcome!**


End file.
